European leaders want to talk with Trump before his Putin summit - Bloomberg

"The leaders want to speak to him before Friday when Trump and Putin are due to meet, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations," the media outlet notes.

What precedes this

On Wednesday, August 6, Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow for negotiations with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Soon after, news emerged that Trump and Putin would hold a meeting next week, and on Friday, the US President officially announced the summit would take place on August 15 in Alaska.

Before the announcement, Trump said there could be a territory exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

Following Witkoff's visit, the media reported that Putin agreed to a ceasefire if Ukraine withdrew troops from the Donetsk region. However, Bild wrote that Witkoff misunderstood Putin, as the latter still wants control over the entire Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that in negotiations between Russia and the US, Putin demands that Ukraine withdraw troops from the Donetsk region, while Russia would stop along the current frontlines in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Amid news about the so-called territory exchange, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on August 9 that Ukraine will not give up its territories.

Also, on Saturday in the UK, representatives from the US, Europe, and Ukraine met to coordinate common positions. Soon after, the Head of the European Commission and several EU leaders published a joint statement.

In that statement, they supported Trump's diplomatic efforts but insisted on a ceasefire before any peace negotiations begin.