Ukraine and its international partners are calling on Russia to accept a U.S. proposal for a “full, unconditional cease-fire” on Monday, the country’s foreign minister said on May 10.
The statement came as Ukrainian leadership met with delegations from international allies in Kyiv, who were visiting in a push to pressure Moscow to come to the negotiating table to end its war with Ukraine.
Leaders from France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom arrived together at the train station in Kyiv on Saturday to meet Zelenskyy and express their shared support for an immediate cease-fire deal.
“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” the leaders said in a joint statement. “Alongside the U.S., we call on Russia to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day cease-fire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
The visit marked the first time that leaders from the four countries have traveled together to Ukraine, and it was also Friedrich Merz’s first visit to Ukraine as the chancellor of Germany.
The statement also followed closely behind a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described as “constructive.”
“Certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction was, ‘You’re asking for too much.’ But this is how negotiations unfold,” Vance said at the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday.
Vance suggested that Moscow was reluctant to come to the negotiating table at present because it considered itself to be in a position of strength in its current campaign. But, he added, Putin was likely trying to set extreme demands ahead of a negotiation, knowing that Russia would walk away with less than what was asked for.
The next concrete step that the United States is looking to take is getting Kyiv and Moscow to agree to terms for engaging in direct talks with one another instead of through intermediaries.
If that proved impossible, he said, the United States would walk away from its self-assumed role as mediator of the peace process.
Trump called for a 30-day cease-fire again on May 8, and the European Union has endorsed the proposal.
As the United States attempts to wrangle a cease-fire deal, its attempts have foundered. However, Ukraine’s European allies have also sought to build out additional ways of providing security assistance to Ukraine if the peace talks fail.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe as a whole was beginning to recognize itself as a global power again and would take the necessary actions towards solidifying the defense of the continent.
“What’s happening with Poland, Germany, and Great Britain is a historic moment for European defense and toward a greater independence for our security, obviously for Ukraine, but for all of us,” Macron said. “It’s a new era. It’s a Europe that sees itself as a power.”
To that end, Zelenskyy and his international counterparts began holding a virtual meeting with other leaders to form a new “coalition of the willing” that would provide support to Ukraine’s military after a peace deal had been struck and potentially deploy troops to Ukraine to enforce any terms made with Russia.
