Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies agreed to continue working on security guarantees for Kyiv following discussions in London, suggesting the talks failed to deliver a breakthrough paving the way to a peace settlement with Russia that Ukraine can accept.

European leaders “aligned a shared position on the importance of security guarantees and reconstruction, and agreed on the next steps,” Zelenskyy said on X after meeting for talks in London with his British, French and German counterparts. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a separate statement that “the leaders underscored the need for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which includes robust security guarantees.”

The London meeting took place against a backdrop of concern in European governments that a U.S.-brokered peace initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine risked making too many concessions to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “What is crucial today is unity between Europe and Ukraine, as well as unity between Europe, Ukraine, and the United States,” Zelenskyy said.

Control over eastern regions of the war-ravaged country as well as security guarantees from allies are among a number of “sensitive issues” that require further discussions, Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News on Monday before heading to London.

The British statement noted that national security advisers for European governments would continue discussions in coming days. “The leaders all agreed that now is a critical moment and that we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war,” Starmer’s office said.

Zelenskyy said after the discussions that he saw some “very small” progress, indicating he may send the latest draft version of the peace plan to Washington on Tuesday. Ukraine is looking for legally binding security guarantees from the U.S. that are approved by the Congress, the president told reporters during his flight to Brussels late Monday.

In the course of several frenetic weeks of negotiations, Ukraine has managed to water down an initial 28-point peace plan floated by the United States, which appeared favorable to Russia by attempting to bar Kyiv from joining NATO and capping the size of its army. A new 20-point framework document has emerged, but there remains little clarity on how Moscow will be deterred from launching another attack in the future.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he was “a little bit disappointed” in Zelenskyy, who he claimed hadn’t yet read the proposal. Moscow, on the other hand, was “fine with it,” he told reporters.

Trump has grown increasingly impatient with the lack of progress in talks to the end war, which he had promised to end within 24 hours of taking office. In doing so, he’s repeatedly sounded sympathetic to Russia, the country that started the full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor almost four years ago. Last week, a U.S. national security strategy document signed by Trump said European governments “hold unrealistic expectations for the war.”

Ukraine’s European allies, largely shut out of the American-led diplomacy, have bridled at an initiative viewed as leaning toward Moscow. Trump has dispatched his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner to work over the proposal in talks in Moscow, while Ukrainian officials have shuttled between Kyiv, Geneva and Florida.

Arriving in London for the talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskyy said his country needed unity between its main allies to secure an agreement.

“There are some things which we can’t manage without Americans,” as well as some “things which couldn’t manage without Europe,” Zelenskyy said in Downing Street. “That’s why we need to make some important decisions.”

Still, he has also signaled that the talks with the U.S. have yet to yield agreement on Ukraine’s Donbas, including the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. The U.S. said Friday that negotiators had locked in an agreement with Kyiv on a “framework of security arrangements” and discussed what was needed to prevent another attack, though there was little indication of a major breakthrough.

“There are visions of the U.S., Russia and Ukraine — and we don’t have a unified view on Donbas,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News earlier Monday before leaving for London. He said Kyiv is pushing for a separate agreement on security guarantees from Western allies, above all the U.S.

The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine cede areas of the Donetsk region that its troops failed to take by force in nearly four years of war. Zelenskyy and European allies have repeatedly said a ceasefire must be imposed along the current front line, rejecting a demand for the Ukrainian army to withdraw.

With negotiators working on a separate accord involving security guarantees, the Ukrainian president emphasized Kyiv’s position that they should function like NATO’s mutual-defense mechanism, known as Article 5.

“There is one question I — and all Ukrainians — want to get an answer to: if Russia again starts a war, what will our partners do?” Zelenskyy said.

Elements of the U.S. plan also include Ukraine’s goal of joining the European Union and tapping immobilized Russian central bank assets. European leaders have been working on a plan to use Russian central bank assets frozen in Belgium to fund Ukraine, but so far Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has resisted the idea, arguing Belgium could be on the hook if Russia sues. European leaders in London noted “positive progress made to use immobilized Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction,” according to the U.K. readout.

“We are talking to the U.S. — it is constructive work,” Zelenskyy said. “But there are questions that concern Europe — and we cannot decide for Europe. We need to discuss with Europe Ukraine’s membership in the EU, which is also part of security guarantees.”

After the talks in London, Zelenskyy headed on to Brussels for further talks with European officials, and plans to then fly to Rome for a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday.

“After that, we will have our joint vision” for the talks, Zelenskyy said. “And I am ready to fly to the U.S. if the president is ready for such a meeting.”

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