German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that there would “obviously” be no meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Unlike what had been agreed between President Trump and President Putin last week, when we were together in Washington, it is obviously not going to come to a meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Putin,” Merz said while visiting France ahead of a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.
There has been no sign of progress toward a peace deal, mainly due to the insistence of Zelensky and his Western backers that Ukraine must receive security guarantees that involve the deployment of Western troops to Ukrainian territory, an idea that Russia has repeatedly stated is a non-starter. Zelensky has also rejected the idea of ceding any territory that Ukrainian forces still control, and Putin’s conditions for a deal involve Ukraine withdrawing from the Donbas.
As the peace process has stalled, the war continues to rage. Merz addressed heavy Russian strikes that hit the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday, which killed 22 people according to Ukrainian officials, saying that “we must respond to this unprecedented attack.” According to AP, the strikes also damaged European Union diplomatic offices.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the attacks and said that President Trump was “not happy” about it and also pointed to Ukrainian attacks on oil infrastructure inside Russia.
“He was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised. These are two countries that have been at war for a very long time. Russia launched this attack on Kyiv, and likewise, Ukraine recently dealt a blow to Russia’s oil refineries,” Leavitt said.
There are signs that the administration is planning to continue the proxy war, including the reported approval of the deal that will arm Ukraine with thousands of Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) air-launched missiles, which have a significantly further range than other missiles that the US has sent into the conflict. According to The Wall Street Journal, the deal will be funded by the US’s European allies.
NATO recently began a new scheme to provide Ukraine with more US weapons in deals funded by other NATO allies, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative. Trump administration officials have signaled that they’re willing to continue supporting the war as long as Europe foots the bill.
“Americans, I think, are sick of continuing to send their money, their tax dollars of this particular conflict,” Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month. “But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we’re OK with that, but we’re not going to fund it ourselves anymore.”
