Transcript of Europe’s leaders tell Trump they must help decide Ukraine’s future | BBC News

President Trump now says Ukraine will have a part in any peace negotiations to end the war with Russia after initially making no mention of Ukraine or Europe in any talks. President Zelensky has warned world leaders against trusting the Russian President's claims of readiness to end the three-year war. Tonight, Donald Trump has said high-level people from Russia, America, and Ukraine would be meeting at a security conference in Munich tomorrow. Though in the last few minutes, Ukraine is now saying it is not planning talks with Russia at the conference. From Ukraine, here's our international editor, Jeremy Bowen.

Every flag represents a Ukrainian soldier killed in the war with Russia. A memorial created by their families here in the center of Kyiv. Every photo is a life lost in the war that President Putin started, which he now might have a big role in finishing since Donald Trump brought him back in from the cold.

All of this is the reason why President Trump might find it hard to persuade or to bully the Ukrainians to accept a bad deal for them. A sense of sacrifice betrayed. It's clear that President Putin is only interested in an agreement that amounts to a Ukrainian capitulation, in other words, a surrender. It's not just about keeping the land that Russia has already taken. It is about breaking Ukraine's capacity to act as a sovereign nation.

Far away in the White House in Washington, Donald Trump did more photo opportunity diplomacy. So far, he's caused delight in Moscow and consternation in Kyiv. So perhaps now he's trying to reassure Ukrainians who fear he wants to decide their country's future in a one-on-one with Vladimir Putin.

We would have Ukraine, we would have Russia, and we'll have other people involved, too. A lot of people, a lot of forks in the A lot of forks in this game, I'll tell you what. This is a very interesting situation, but the Ukraine war has to end.

Earlier in Brussels, the US Defense Secretary arrived at a NATO meeting to pass on more of his President's messages, light on detail, heavy on declarations. Only Trump, the perfect dealmaker, can bridge the yarning gap between Ukraine and Russia, and Europe must spend more on defense.

This administration deeply believes in alliances. But make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker.

This was Kyiv the night before last. A civilian killed another's wounded in a suburb hit by another Russian missile. Ukraine's President wants to deter Russian attacks and invasions in the future by joining NATO, which Trump and Putin have already ruled out. At a nuclear plant, President Zelensky told journalists that he would refuse to accept any agreement made without Ukraine. It is doubtful that Trump's off-the-cuff remarks in the oval office that he'd be included were very reassuring. Back in Kyiv, Alexander Mareszko, an MP from Zelensky's party, told us Donald Trump might not have as much leverage over to Ukraine's President as he thinks he has. Isn't the brutal truth that you're losing the war? And you're maybe losing it slowly, but without the Americans, you'd be in big trouble.

Strategically, we have won the war already because Russia failed to take Kyiv within three days. I believe that time is on our side. This is the war of attrition, yes. But the question is, who will outlast whom?

But if the Americans decide they're not going to give you any more weapons, time is not on your side, I don't believe that Americans, and Trump in particular, will stop providing us weaponry, because if we fall or fail because of this, it will be a huge stain on Trump's reputation.

He's an ambitious person. He wants to go down in history as a very successful President, as a winner, not as Neville Chamberlain.

This is the hardest moment for Ukraine since the dark and desperate first months of the war. Tough choices lie ahead.

Well, let's talk to Jeremy, who's in Kyiv. Donald Trump and his style of diplomacy is certainly leaving people reeling. The question is, is it going to work?

Well, Sophie, the way it's supposed to work, we are told, is that, as his people put it, he is going to flood the zone with these off-the-cuff remarks. It doesn't matter if they sound a bit incoherent sometimes because they're designed to keep all the parties off balance. When they're presented with a coherent proposal, they grab it with both hands. But you know what? I don't think it's going to be quite as simple as that. It's not like an American domestic governmental dispute because what they're talking about is existence. Here in Ukraine, there are many people who are exhausted, who are desperate to try to make sure that their sons do not end up getting killed at the front, who don't want to fight. But there are also all those, and you saw that memorial in my report, who whose friends and family have been killed, who continue to spill their blood, and they do not want to be sold down the river. In Russia, well, I think Putin has always known that if he loses this, then it's not just curtains of his regime. It might be curtains physically for him, too. But actually, at the moment, he feels he's winning.

I'm getting that very strongly from diplomatic sources in Western Europe, that that is his belief. Yeah, he'll take a deal if it's something that gives him a shortcut to the victory that he thinks is coming, but he's in no mood to make any concessions towards Ukraine. It could well be, despite all of this, Sophie, that Donald Trump is a diplomatic miracle worker. Or the other side of that is that this is a world in which old certainties are disappearing when there's a lot of trouble and instability. In fact, this one, therefore, would continue.