European leaders continued on Sunday to push to have Ukraine involved in the negotiations between the United States and Russia, ahead of talks between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Putin and Trump are to meet in the US state of Alaska on August 15 to try to bring an end to the three-year war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated a peace deal without his country's input would not be possible.

What did European leaders say about Ukraine's involvement in a peace deal?

Europe has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any deal to end the conflict, with EU foreign ministers set to discuss the next steps for the bloc in a meeting by video link on Monday, together with their Ukrainian counterpart.

"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," the leaders from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement.

The statement was followed by the heads of eight Nordic-Baltic nations, who also jointly reaffirmed their support for Ukraine.

The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden said they "Reaffirm the principle that international borders must not be changed by force." 

Expressing their belief that peace could only come through consistent pressure being put on the Russian Federation to halt its "unlawful" war, the Nordic-Baltic countries added that they would continue to uphold and impose restrictive measures against Russia.

Merz rebuffs idea of Ukraine ceding land to Russia

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told local broadcaster ARD on Sunday he assumed Zelenskyy will attend the summit between Trump and Putin.

"We hope and assume that the government of Ukraine, that President Zelenskyy will be involved in this meeting," Merz said in an interview with ARD.

"We cannot accept in any case that territorial questions are discussed or even decided between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians. I assume that the American government sees it the same way."

Kallas believes US must force Russia to end war

Meanwhile, top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas expressed her belief that the US should use its power to "force" Russia to bring an end to the war.

"President Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine. The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine's and the whole of Europe's security," Kallas said.

Adding to the calls for Trump to exert his diplomatic powers, NATO head Mark Rutte told ABC's This Week broadcast that "Next Friday will be important because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end."

However, unlike many European leaders, Rutte said it was a reality that "Russia is controlling some of Ukrainian territory" and suggested a future deal could acknowledge this.

Vance says US will stop financing weapons for Ukraine

Separately, US Vice President JD Vance used a recorded interview with US conservative broadcaster Fox News to repeat that Washington plans to withdraw financially from supporting Ukraine. 

"I think the president, and I certainly think that America, we're done with the funding of the Ukraine war business. We want to bring about a peaceful settlement to this thing," Vance said in the interview that was recorded several days ago. 

"But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we're OK with that, but we're not going to fund it ourselves anymore," Vance said.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery