INKOO, Finland — Ukraine's President has arrived in Berlin ahead of a series of high stakes European summits on Wednesday. Volodymyr Zelenskyy was met by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a series of urgent meetings aimed at bolstering support for Ukraine — and building influence with President Donald Trump before his meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Throwing ahead to his call with European partners, on Wednesday morning President Trump posted on Truth Social, "will be speaking to European Leaders in a short while. They are great people who want to see a deal done."
In Finland, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia, there's little optimism those efforts will succeed. "Take it from us," Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen posted on X earlier this year. "Putin has no intention to stop his expansionist pursuit."
The Trump-Putin meeting will be the first between the Russian leader and a U.S. president since before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Some European officials have publicly welcomed the talks, but others warn they could come at a steep cost.
"We welcome the efforts of President Trump to reach peace for Ukraine — a peace that is just and lasting and respects sovereignty," said European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta.
But Jarmo Makela, a veteran Finnish political commentator, says that glosses over deep fears in countries that have lost territory to Russia in the past. Finland, he noted, had to give up 12% of its land in a peace deal with Moscow after World War II. "Everybody is very worried at this moment," Makela told NPR.
That anxiety is driving three back-to-back, last-minute virtual meetings among European leaders — including one convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that will bring together Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and leaders from Finland, France, Italy, Poland, the U.K., and the EU.
Zelenskyy, speaking to journalists ahead of the summit, accused Putin of seeking to dominate Ukraine because "he does not want a sovereign Ukraine." Forcing Kyiv to accept Russia's demand for control over parts of the Donbas — about 90,000 square kilometers — would be dangerous, he warned.
Makela fears the outcome could mirror the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Nazi Germany seized part of Czechoslovakia with promises not to take more — promises later broken. "The basic feeling is a fear that a part of Ukraine is given to Putin with the promise he wouldn't take the rest. And then, a while later, he took it all," he said.
He warns that any U.S.-Russia "land swap" deal — giving Putin the Ukrainian territory his forces currently occupy — could set the stage for the Kremlin's next move. "The countries which really are preparing themselves for an immediate confrontation are the Baltic countries and Poland," Makela said. "Finland and the Nordic countries, we are preparing for the war, but we don't expect it to take place immediately – (but) we do expect it."
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