“Today is Sunday. President Trump’s plan is to reach an agreement on Thursday. We are still very far from that. That doesn’t mean it’s completely impossible to reach… But I’m sceptical whether such an outcome is possible given the current differences,” said Merz on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

Ukrainian, US and European officials gathered in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the draft US plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Merz added that he had made his own proposal, currently being discussed in Geneva, on how to at least take a first step by Thursday if the 28 points are too much to cover in five days.

“I want to at least try to find one point of agreement with Russia on the Ukrainian side, to get the approval of the Americans and the Europeans,” he said, without giving more details about his suggestion.