Europe and Ukraine face 'crunch time' as Nato membership dropped

European leaders on Monday held meetings in Brussels and Berlin in a bid to strengthen Ukraine's position as US-brokered peace talks intensify.

The stakes are high for Europe after its leaders received scathing criticism from US President Donald Trump describing them as "weak".

They fear a deal at Ukraine's disadvantage that will embolden Russia to attack other European countries in the future.

"We have to be really clear eyed," the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said as she arrived at the meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers.

Kaja Kallas rings a bell at the start of an EU Foreign Affairs Council roundtable. REUTERS / Omar Havana TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

"In the last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries, some as many as three or four times. None of those countries has ever attacked Russia."

European foreign ministers are meeting one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to drop his country's bid to join Nato in a bid to move forward talks in Berlin with US negotiators.

'Real troops'

"It's crunch time for Europe and Ukraine," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. While Denmark would have "preferred a Ukrainian Nato membership", it will accommodate Mr Zelenskyy's proposal to give it up "in order to compromise."

"We have to ensure other kinds of guarantees exactly as strong as Article Five," Mr Løkke Rasmussen added, referring to Nato's cornerstone policy that an attack against one is the same as an attack against all.

Ukraine needs more than "papers or promises", Ms Kallas said.