German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Ukraine holds a position of strength on the battlefield and called on Russia to freeze the front line and return to the negotiating table with Kyiv.
Speaking at a Ukraine recovery conference in Gdansk, Merz said that Russia would not win the war and that European support for Kyiv was unwavering.
Merz said that unity on Ukraine between European countries and the United States had held since the G7 summit, and that Europe was sending a clear message to Russia: it was time to enter negotiations, freeze the front line, and stop the killing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is prepared to negotiate with Ukraine, but only on terms he has already set out. Moscow is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions — within their full administrative boundaries — that the Russian military has not yet captured.
According to sources cited by Ukrainian media, U.S. President Donald Trump supports the long-range strikes Ukraine has recently carried out behind Russian lines. Trump has reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in private to act “more boldly” toward Moscow to push it back to the negotiating table.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.
