Media: Europe warned Ukraine about possible betrayal of the United States

Europe deeply distrusts the United States in matters of peace negotiations and fears that Washington will impose territorial concessions on Kyiv without giving any security guarantees in return. The German magazine Spiegel writes about this, citing a transcript of a telephone conversation between European leaders and the Ukrainian president, which was at the disposal of the editors.

According to the publication, earlier this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had a closed telephone conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. They warned the Ukrainian president that he must be extremely careful in the coming days.

“There is a possibility that the United States will betray Ukraine on the territorial issue without clear security guarantees,” Macron said, recalling that it is around the territories that the most fierce disputes are currently taking place.

Merz, in turn, added that political games are being played with both Europe and Ukraine. Spiegel suggests that the German Chancellor was hinting at behind-the-scenes negotiations being conducted with Russia by US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. The confidential conversation also included the participation of Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who, according to the publication, agreed that Europe should not leave Ukraine “alone with these guys.”

Separately, the participants in the conversation were concerned that Europe was actually excluded from the peace negotiations. To remedy the situation, European leaders hoped to organize a meeting on December 3 with Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Brussels. However, immediately after meeting with Putin in Moscow, American negotiators flew to the United States, canceling the planned conversation with Zelensky.

Putin’s meeting with the American delegation took place in the Kremlin on December 2. The negotiations lasted almost five hours, but the parties practically did not comment on their results. Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said that they did not discuss specific wording, but concentrated on the essence “embedded in American documents.”