The Group of Seven (G7) opened its summit at Evian-les-Bains, a French spa town on Lake Geneva, on Monday 15 June with Ukraine at the top of the agenda1. Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended at French invitation and proposed a summit with Vladimir Putin, Trump and European leaders on the sidelines; Moscow showed no interest. The G7 groups the major Western industrial democracies, and this meeting tried to merge their economic and diplomatic pressure on Russia into one track.
Donald Trump had called Putin and Zelenskyy separately on Sunday 14 June, his 80th birthday. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the Putin call as "friendly and frank", while Zelenskyy concluded from his own that Russia is not ready for a truce2. Trump said he would "focus again on Ukraine" now the US-Iran deal is done.
With US mediation formally declared stagnated on 22 May, Europe is carrying the diplomacy. Emmanuel Macron set the format he wants: "Ukraine and Russia at the table, but with Europeans and Americans present." The G7 agreed to tie further Russia sanctions to the course of any peace talks, which turns a fixed penalty into a conditional instrument. Putin's terms have not moved since he rejected Zelenskyy's summit letter and the E3 backed the line of contact as a baseline. European leverage is growing; the Russian precondition is the same one that has frozen every round since May.
