German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday 10 December to discuss ways to achieve peace in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had been sent a proposal on territorial concessions Ukraine is ready to make to end its war against Russia. Merz said the proposal was sent after he and other European leaders had spoken by phone with Trump on Wednesday.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak tells Le Monde that the zone would require Ukrainian and Russian forces to both pull back from the front line.

The Prime Minister said there were a ‘number of issues still to be resolved’ but dismissed suggestions his optimism had been frayed.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen kept up the pressure on Belgium Friday to accede to an EU plan to use Russian central bank assets frozen in Belgium to fund Ukraine.