Berlin- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stated that a direct summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “obviously” not going to happen and impossible amid rising tensions.

US President Donald Trump has been advocating for such a meeting following his recent summit with Putin in Alaska, framing it as a potential step toward peace. While Moscow has expressed openness to talks with Zelensky, it insists that meaningful progress in negotiations must precede any summit.

“There will obviously not be a meeting between President Zelensky and President Putin,” Merz told journalists ahead of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Besançon, France, on Thursday. “This is unlike what was agreed upon between President Trump and President Putin last week in Washington.”

Merz, who recently joined Zelensky and Ukraine’s key European NATO backers for talks with Trump in the White House, noted that the US president even called Putin during the session. Since then, Kiev and its Western European allies have increasingly emphasized the need for “security guarantees” for Ukraine.

Trump has ruled out granting Ukraine NATO membership and stressed that he will not commit US troops in the event of a ceasefire. However, he indicated that Washington could support European allies willing to deploy forces on the ground. “Europe is going to give them significant security guarantees,” Trump said, clarifying that the US would play a supporting role.

Moscow has firmly rejected the idea of NATO troops in Ukraine, whether framed as peacekeepers or otherwise, warning that such a move could provoke a direct confrontation with the West. Russia has long portrayed the conflict as a proxy war orchestrated by the US-led military alliance.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov further criticized Kiev, claiming the Ukrainian government is not genuinely interested in peace but is instead seeking anti-Russian military alliances to protect what he described as its “neo-Nazi, Russophobic regime.”