European leaders expected to cement support for Ukraine amid US pressure

BERLIN, December 16 ------ European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a US-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between US envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Zelensky sat down Sunday with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close. Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays.

The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces. The US government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Source: manilatimes.net