BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders sought to send a “clear signal” to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at a summit on Thursday about their continued support for Ukraine and also discuss security and economic challenges caused by his return to White. House.

The leaders will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the start of their talks in Brussels and reaffirm their “unshakable commitment” to support Ukraine “to the extent necessary”, according to the draft conclusions.

Trump has repeatedly called for a swift end to the nearly three-year war. On Monday he said Zelenskiy should be ready to reach a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he did not say whether that would mean Kyiv handing over territory to Moscow as part of a negotiated settlement.

Russian forces currently occupy almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory and continue to advance in the east of the country.

“Russia should not prevail,” the EU’s draft conclusions say, adding that no initiative should be taken in Ukraine without the participation of Kyiv.

An EU diplomat described the draft text as sending “a clear signal to the US”.

The leaders will also discuss wider EU-US relations over lunch amid concerns over a possible transatlantic trade war.

Trump said the EU would “pay a big price” with tariffs for not buying enough US exports. He has already promised massive tariffs on three of the United States’ biggest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China. The EU knows it cannot be saved.

Unity

Some EU diplomats say the key for the bloc is unity and avoiding Washington holding discussions or negotiations with individual EU members – a copy of the more successful joint strategy for to deal with Britain during the Brexit negotiations.

“The US will probably try individual negotiations but so far I have not seen countries falling for that,” an EU diplomat said.

The EU will seek to point out that it is the second largest trading partner of the United States and a close ally with shared values. However, mindful that Trump is concerned about the US goods trade deficit, EU officials have said they may offer to buy more LNG or US arms.

The “EU of the world” lunch debate is also likely to include China and whether the bloc will be forced to take sides in a US-China trade dispute as well as Britain, which has said it wants to reset relations. of the European Union and Seen by the bloc as an important security ally.