The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany have thrown their support behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, issuing a joint statement following talks at 10 Downing Street in London on Sunday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Zelensky as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — launched by President Vladimir Putin in February 2022 — entered its fifth year.

The joint statement declared that the four leaders "supported the proposal for a direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia — with active US and European participation — to bring about a ceasefire and support further negotiations." The statement set out five conditions for a "just and lasting" peace, including a halt to hostilities, the use of the current front line as the starting point for any territorial negotiations, and robust security guarantees for Ukraine. It also affirmed that "international borders must not be changed by force" and that Ukraine's right to choose its own security arrangements — an implicit rejection of Russian demands that Kyiv abandon its ambitions to join NATO — "must be fully respected."

Zelensky had on Thursday sent an open letter to Putin proposing a face-to-face meeting to end the war. Putin dismissed the offer, saying he saw "no point" in meeting the Ukrainian leader before a peace agreement had been reached, and reiterating that Russia would only end the war once its stated goals were achieved. In a Sky News interview on Sunday evening, Zelensky revealed he had also met Russian businessman Roman Abramovich — who is sanctioned by the UK and European Union over his ties to the Kremlin — in Kyiv to relay a message to Putin, repeating his request for direct talks and warning that Ukraine would not cede its territory.

The London talks were overshadowed by a Russian drone strike on a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the site of the world's worst non-military nuclear disaster in 1986. Ukraine's state nuclear operator Energoatom said the fuel reception building was "partially destroyed" by an Iranian-designed Shahed drone, though it reported no injuries and said radiation levels remained within normal limits. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was dispatching a team to inspect the damage, calling the incident "deeply concerning." Separately, Russian strikes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least five people on Sunday.

The three European nations — sometimes referred to as the E3 group — are among Ukraine's most steadfast supporters and co-lead the "coalition of the willing," an initiative to provide security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any future peace process. The London meeting underscores Europe's determination to remain a central player in any diplomatic settlement, at a time when US-led peace efforts have stalled and fighting on the ground continues to intensify.