European and US leaders have diverged on how to deal with Russia’s war on Ukraine during the Munich Security Conference. German Chancellor Scholz, along with others, has been critical of US comments.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine and European countries would need to participate in peace talks with Russia.

It comes after US President Donald Trump spoke to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the phone without consulting European allies or Kyiv beforehand, sparking fears among EU leaders that they could be excluded from peace talks.

Rubio told the CBS broadcaster on Sunday that Trump had directed him and his team to “immediately” begin negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

“If it’s real negotiations — and we’re not there yet — but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they’re the one that were invaded,” he said.

“And the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well and they’ve contributed to this effort,” he said.

“One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one,” Rubio said, adding that the war had been “complicated” and “bloody.”

Rubio also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Zelenskyy has insisted that there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine” or “about Europe without Europe.”

On Saturday, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Europe would not be directly involved in talks on Ukraine but would still provide “input.”