US President Donald Trump's special envoy will meet with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the White House has said, as Washington presses for a plan to end Russia's bitter war with Kiev.
A White House official on Friday confirmed to AFP the accuracy of a Wall Street Journal report that envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Zelenskyy and European leaders over the weekend to discuss the status of peace negotiations.
Germany's government has said Berlin will host the leaders, including the heads of the European Union and NATO, next Monday in the hours after Zelenskyy attends a German-Ukrainian business forum with Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Washington has been stepping up pressure on Kiev to reach an agreement.
Ukrainian officials said they recently sent Washington an updated plan building on Trump's original 28-point peace proposal to end the war that began in February 2022.
Trump's plan, publicly revealed last month, was accused of echoing Moscow's key demands, including Ukraine giving up crucial territory to Russia.
"Security guarantees"
The idea of a speedy accession by Ukraine into the European Union - a move opposed by Moscow - is included in the latest version of a US-led plan to end the war.
Ukraine would join the EU as early as January 2027 under the latest US plan, a senior source familiar with the matter told AFP on Friday.
Meanwhile, Europeans and Ukrainians are asking the United States to provide them with "security guarantees" before Ukraine negotiates any territorial concessions, the French presidency said on Friday.
Trump has grown weary of multiple meetings that never seem to reach an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine, Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday.
"The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war, and he is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting," she added.
