BERLIN  

Germany voiced support on Friday for US President Donald Trump's renewed push for a Ukraine ceasefire, while expressing skepticism about Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations.

Deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer told a press conference in Berlin that Germany would continue to strongly support Ukraine—both to defend itself against Russia and to ensure a strong position in possible negotiations for a diplomatic settlement to end the conflict.

“We naturally support all efforts, especially those of US President Trump, to get the peace process moving again. We support this. We are in constant dialogue on this with European partners, but also with the US administration. It is urgently necessary to pursue a path toward a just peace,” Meyer told reporters.

However, he noted that the German government remains skeptical about whether this new initiative will succeed, pointing to Russian President Vladimir Putin's response to previous efforts—such as imposing harsh conditions and intensifying bombardments in Ukraine.

"The last few weeks and months have certainly shown that there is one person who clearly had no interest in seriously pursuing this peace process, and that person is Vladimir Putin," he said. "We must further increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin. That is why we support Ukraine and why we also support all efforts—such as the US president’s effort—to take steps to persuade Putin to finally negotiate a just peace with Ukraine," he added.

Trump said Thursday that he plans to meet Putin in Hungary within two weeks for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. He said a meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be held before that. Both meetings were announced publicly after Trump and Putin concluded a bilateral phone call earlier Thursday.