Europe backs Trump’s ceasefire push as Putin meeting looms in Budapest

Washington: The joint statement, released after days of intense coordination, declared strong support for Trump’s proposal that fighting should halt along the current battle lines and that these lines should serve as the foundation for peace negotiations.

“We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” the statement read.

Trump’s push for a ceasefire follows his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, where he urged both sides to freeze hostilities to allow diplomatic talks to resume. The move marks a rare moment of unified Western alignment after months of tension over differing approaches to the war’s resolution.

The announcement comes as Trump and Putin prepare to meet in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, a NATO and EU member that has maintained unusually warm ties with Moscow throughout the conflict. Russia has long insisted that Ukraine cede additional territory before agreeing to a ceasefire, a demand consistently rejected by Kyiv and its allies.

Meanwhile, European leaders plan to gather later this week at an EU summit and during a separate meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, a group of nations formed by France and Britain in February to coordinate military and economic support for Ukraine. Zelenskiy is expected to attend the coalition meeting in London on Friday.

The coalition has been in talks for months, working to outline long-term strategies to deter future Russian aggression and secure Ukraine’s defense capabilities once a truce is reached.

“We must ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defence industry, until Putin is ready to make peace,” the joint statement emphasized. “We are developing measures to use the full value of Russia’s immobilised sovereign assets so that Ukraine has the resources it needs.”