‘Coalition of the willing’ nations to hold call on ending war in Ukraine

Leaders of the “coalition of the willing” group of nations will hold a video call on Thursday as chaotic American efforts to push through a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine reach a crunch moment.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his officials would hand over a revised version of a peace plan to US negotiators on Wednesday before the call with leaders and officials from about 30 countries.

Zelenskyy will be on the call, along with Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, who had a four-way meeting in Downing Street on Monday. They will be joined by numerous other leaders of nations supporting Ukraine.

“This week may bring news for all of us,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “We believe that peace has no alternative, and the key questions are how to compel Russia to stop the killings and what specifically will deter Russia from a third invasion.

Thursday’s call comes a day after Starmer, Macron and Merz spoke to Donald Trump and agreed it was a “critical moment”, according to a British report of the conversation. “Intensive work on the peace plan is continuing and will continue in the coming days,” it said.

The European leaders have also been working to draw up security guarantees for Ukraine in the event a peace deal is struck, though it is far from clear any western nations are willing to offer meaningful guarantees against further Russian aggression in the event of a peace deal.

Trump has vacillated between appearing supportive and dismissive of Ukraine since taking office at the beginning of this year, but his recent peace drive on terms that seem beneficial to Russia, combined with a new US national security strategy that attacks European nations, has worried allies. In a repeat of previous cycles of Trump-led peace efforts, Zelenskyy has mobilised European leaders to come to his assistance when under pressure from the US president.

Trump claimed earlier in the week that Zelenskyy had not even read his draft peace plan. “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it,” said Trump.

Numerous Russian officials have praised the Trump team’s peace efforts, and Vladimir Putin welcomed the White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for five hours of talks in the Kremlin last week. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Trump was the only western leader with “an understanding of the reasons that made war in Ukraine inevitable”.

But sceptics say there is little sign that Russia is ready to sign a peace deal, even on the terms proposed by the White House, which include Kyiv giving up control of the entire Donbas region. Putin has instead said repeatedly that Moscow wants a “comprehensive settlement” to the conflict.

At home, Zelenskyy is under pressure on several fronts, after a corruption scandal led him to fire his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, his closest confidant since the start of the full-scale war.

On Tuesday, Trump piled further pressure on, claiming Ukraine ought to hold elections and suggesting Zelenskyy, whose official term ended in May 2024, might not win them. “They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump told Politico. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy any more.”

There has been a consensus in Ukrainian politics that holding a wartime election, which is illegal under martial law, would only play into Russia’s hands, and even staunch critics of Zelenskyy have not called for a vote. But clearly feeling pressured by statements from Trump and others in his orbit, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday evening he was “ready for elections”. He said he would ask the US to supply proposals on how to hold a vote safely and request that MPs prepare legislation to allow an election.

“I am asking … the United States to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections, and then in the next 60 to 90 days Ukraine will be ready to hold the elections. I personally have the will and readiness for this,” Zelenskyy said.

On the frontline, Russia continued its assaults on the city of Pokrovsk and nearby Myrnohrad on Wednesday. The Ukrainian military said Russia was using “armoured vehicles, cars and motorcycles” to storm the northern part of Pokrovsk from the morning. Russia has already claimed control of the whole city but Kyiv says it holds the northern part.

On Tuesday, Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, said Moscow’s forces now controlled 30% of nearby Myrnohrad and that Putin had ordered them to complete the takeover of the town. A Ukrainian military source who had just returned from Myrnohrad confirmed that street battles are going on in the town. “It’s absolute hell,” said the source.