'A critical moment': European leaders rally behind Ukraine

Zelenskyy joins talks at No 10 as Trump urges Kyiv to cede territory.

- Eleni Courea Jennifer Rankin Peter Beaumont

Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz outside No 10 after yesterday's talks

(ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

European leaders rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy last night amid hopes that they might finally achieve a breakthrough to allow Ukraine access to billions of pounds of frozen Russian assets.

Despite vociferous support for the Ukrainian president, who has come under heavy pressure from Donald Trump to cede territory to bring the war with Russia to an end, there was still no agreement on the thorny question of channelling immobilised assets into a loan for Kyiv.

But Downing Street said “positive progress” was made on the issue during crisis talks in London with Zelenskyy; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.

They were joined on a call by the leaders of seven other European countries, a senior representative from Turkey, and Nato and EU chiefs. During the meeting leaders “underscored the need for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine” including “robust security guarantees” against further Russian aggression, No 10 said.

The leaders agreed that "now is a critical moment" for Ukraine and vowed to increase support for Kyiv and economic pressure on Moscow "to bring an end to this barbaric war".

The European show of support came after sharp criticism from Trump, who said he was "a little disappointed" in Zelenskyy and claimed the Ukrainian leader had not read the US proposal for a peace deal. Trump insisted without evidence that "his people love it" and also said that Vladimir Putin was "fine with it".