European leaders back Trump's Ukraine ceasefire position

Brussels [Belgium], October 21 (ANI): European Union countries on Tuesday released a statement in support of the US President Donald Trump's position that fighting should end immediately in Ukraine, adding that "the current line of contact should be the starting point of 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.

"We must ramp up the pressure on Russia's economy and its defence industry, until [Vladimir] Putin is ready to make peace. We are developing measures to use the full value of Russia's immobilised sovereign assets so that Ukraine has the resources it needs," it read.

The statement was signed by Ukranian President Zelenskyy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, France President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk, EU President von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa, Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre Støre, Finland President Cai-Goran Alexander Stubb and Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Peace for Ukraine

The EU President Ursula von der Leyen took to X to share the joint statement and said, "We're united, more than ever, for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine."

"We support President of the US efforts to this end. Ukraine must be in the strongest position before, during and after any ceasefire," she said adding "This will be front and center in our EUCO and Coalition of the Willing meetings."

EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Monday that Ukraine shouldn't have to give up territory as part of a peace deal with Russia.

According to a Polico report, Kallas was cited as telling jounalists in Luxembourg after a meeting of foreign ministers, "If we just give away the territories, then this gives a message to everybody that you can just use force against your neighbors and get what you want." She said, "I think this is very dangerous. That's why we have the international law in place, [so] that nobody does that."

US President Trump had on Sunday told reporters that Russia and Ukraine should stop fighting and resolve the "details" over territory at future talks. HE proposed that battlelines be frozen where they currently stand with Russia control the occupied territory. The current front line runs through the Donbas region, an industrial hub.

Trump made the remarks on board Air Force One, two days after he met with Ukranian President Zelenskyy at the White House, a day after he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on phone, CBS News reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the idea of forfeiting the Donbas, or any other occupied ground, to Moscow in the years since Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said that it was premature to speak about the timing of a possible meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and the United States.

Russia is working on what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed by phone, Ryabkov said as cited by Russian state media TASS.

Earlier in the day, CNN had reported citing White House sources, that a meeting between Lavrov and Rubio, which had been expected to take place in the coming days ahead of a proposed meeting in Budapest, Hungary between presidents Putin and Trump, had been "put on hold for the time being." (ANI)

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