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Trump Declares “Russia Has to Make a Deal” as G7 Allies Scramble Over Ukraine Strategy
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US President Donald Trump has stated that “Russia has to make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, shifting his focus back to the Russian invasion at the G7 summit in France following the resolution of the war in Iran, Bloomberg reported on June 16.
European leaders are working to prevent diplomatic friction at the summit following the announcement, Politico wrote. Officials expressed concern that the US president could assume sole control over future peace talks, leaving European allies sidelined.
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During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump vowed to use his cleared diplomatic agenda to settle the Russian invasion of Ukraine, noting that approximately 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are dying each month. Politico reported that European officials quietly harbor concerns that the US president may attempt to seize exclusive control of future peace negotiations, potentially leaving European allies sidelined and disrupting their strategy of maintaining maximum pressure on the Kremlin.
Despite these apprehensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly maintained that American involvement remains critical, stating after a phone call with Trump that they shared constructive ideas to advance peace prospects.
During a press conference at the summit, Trump remarked that Moscow has lost “a colossal number of people” throughout the war and noted that Russian forces “just continue to fight, to lose soldiers” on the battlefield.
The urgency to establish a unified front comes amid indications of direct US engagement with Moscow. Politico noted that Yury Ushakov, a presidential aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, confirmed that Trump’s appointed negotiators on Ukraine—Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—are scheduled to travel to Moscow in the near future.
This development follows extensive phone consultations Trump held separately with both Putin and Zelenskyy. In response to potential unilateral American mediation, Macron publicly emphasized that European nations are funding a significant portion of Ukraine’s defense and must have an equal seat alongside the United States and the warring parties at any negotiating table.
Concurrently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged G7 partners to increase their financial commitments, pointing out that the European Union’s €90 billion ($104.4 billion) allocation currently covers two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial requirements for this year and next.
According to the publication, von der Leyen highlighted the formal opening of EU membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova as a sign of unwavering European solidarity. She also announced €75 million ($87 million) in additional EU grants for Kyiv and a €15 billion ($17.4 billion) loan directed to France under the bloc’s SAFE program to bolster its domestic defense manufacturing capacity.
As the G7 summit progresses, European leaders aim to bind the United States to a shared negotiating baseline that strictly rejects any territorial concessions by Ukraine, Politico reported. Ahead of the summit, the “E3” coalition—comprising France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—took preliminary steps toward direct contact with the Kremlin by sending diplomats to Moscow to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.
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The European envoys reiterated demands for an immediate ceasefire and robust security guarantees for Ukraine using the current contact line as a structural starting point. However, US administration officials countered that Trump remains uniquely positioned on the global stage to bring both sides together to enforce a final peace agreement.
Trump’s bid for a deal follows a recent diplomatic initiative by Kyiv, which had previously proposed a face-to-face meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin at this very G7 summit. Russia effectively rejected the gesture by launching a heavy shelling attack against Ukraine—an act Kyiv officials explicitly viewed as the Kremlin’s true response to the offer.
This aligns with Zelenskyy’s wider insistence at the summit that Europe must remain at the negotiating table as an ally with shared interests to maintain a common front with the US.
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