Germany will host U.S. and Ukrainian delegations over the weekend for talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine, before a summit with European leaders and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin on Monday, a German official said, according to Reuters.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Germany for talks involving Ukrainian and European officials, according to a U.S. official. The White House had stated on Thursday that Trump would send an official to talks only if sufficient progress could be made.
European support for Ukraine
“Talks on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine are taking place in Berlin this weekend between foreign policy advisers from, among others, the U.S. and Ukraine,” a German government source said on Saturday.
On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is hosting Zelenskiy and European leaders for a summit in Berlin. The meeting represents the latest show of support for Ukraine from European allies as Kyiv faces pressure from Washington to accept a peace plan. Britain, France, and Germany have been working to refine U.S. proposals that, in a draft disclosed last month, called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions, and accept limits on its armed forces.
Merz said on Saturday that Europe must prepare for a fundamental shift in its relations with the U.S. while facing a growing threat from Russia.
“The decades of Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany as well,” he told a party congress in Munich. “The Americans are now very, very aggressively pursuing their own interests. And that can only mean one thing: that we, too, must now pursue our own interests.”
Energy attacks and military developments
The southern Black Sea port city of Odesa and surrounding region suffered blackouts on Saturday after a large missile and drone attack on the electricity grid left more than a million households without power, officials said.
The European Union has sought to strengthen Ukraine’s position by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, said “peace is not far away” and that he hoped to discuss a peace plan with Trump. Erdogan had told Putin that a limited ceasefire focused on energy facilities and ports could be beneficial.
“The Black Sea should not be seen as a battleground. Such a situation would only harm Russia and Ukraine,” Erdogan said in comments released by his office on Saturday.
Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports on Friday, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels including a ship carrying food supplies, Ukrainian officials and one ship-owner said. The invasion began in 2022, according to Reuters.
