Zelenskyy to travel to Washington on Monday for talks with Trump
August 16, 2025 17:58 JST
KYIV (Reuters) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would travel to Washington on Monday for talks with Donald Trump, after the U.S. president's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin failed to bring an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
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European leaders to join Zelenskyy for key meeting with Trump
European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his high-stakes meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday in Washington as they seek to pin down security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure that any peace deal reached with Russia holds. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron have confirmed their participation in the delegation. The move comes as European nations shift their focus toward providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees as Trump pushes for a quick peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Officials from the so-called coalition-of-the-willing countries were set to hold a video call on Sunday afternoon to work on their plan. They're skeptical that a peace agreement can be rapidly reached, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin even wants one. Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she'll host Zelenskyy in Brussels on Sunday afternoon before joining him, Trump and other European leaders at the White House meeting. The talks will include, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, according to a German statement. It will be Zelenskyy's first visit in the White House since February, when his Oval Office encounter with Trump turned into a public shouting match and led to U.S. briefly pausing military aid to Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump berates Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in February. | Doug Mills / The New York Times While the two leaders patched up their relationship since then, the show of support from European leaders aims to help the Ukrainian president as he comes under growing pressure to cede some of the land in return for a vague promise of peace. Trump told European leaders on a call Saturday, following his talks with Putin in Alaska, that he was prepared to contribute to security guarantees with Europe so long as it didn't involve NATO. The U.S. president suggested Putin would be OK with such an arrangement, people familiar with the matter said. He also indicated he could be looking to organize a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as early as within a week, the people said. Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that he's willing to meet Putin. The Kremlin has yet to provide a similar commitment, and many European officials doubt he wants to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is halfway through its fourth year. The topic of a trilateral summit wasn't raised during the meetings in Alaska, Russia's state TV channel Vesti reported on Saturday, citing Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. The specifics of a U.S. contribution to any security guarantees for Ukraine are unclear. The discussions have touched upon the possibility of granting Kyiv assurances from some allies — similar to those of NATO's Article 5 collective defense clause — which commits members to defend each other if attacked, said the people. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, and cautioned that a NATO-like mechanism would be difficult. An alternative would be bolstering, through U.S. commitments, earlier plans coordinated by the U.K. and France, which included reassurance forces, monitoring and air-cover, the people said. Ahead of his meeting with Putin, the U.S. president told allies that a ceasefire would be his key demand. He also threatened to walk out of the talks and impose tough new punitive measures on Moscow and countries buying its oil if it wasn't met. Yet Trump signaled on Friday that he wasn't in a rush to implement fresh penalties on Russia's trading partners. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump pose on a podium on the tarmac after they arrived to attend a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. | Sputnik / Pool / via REUTERS Following his calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders early Saturday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that "it was determined by all' that the best way to end the war was to achieve a peace agreement and "not a mere Ceasefire Agreement.' Most statements issued by European leaders on Saturday made no mention of a ceasefire. Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders that Putin wants Ukraine to cede control of the entire Donbas region in Ukraine's east, renewing earlier demands. Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out giving up all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which comprise Donbas. Moscow's forces only partially control the region and have failed to take it militarily after more than a decade of fighting. Russia would also halt advancing its claims over the parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions it doesn't now control, effectively freezing the battle lines there. The Kremlin could also potentially withdraw troops from other regions such as Sumy and Kharkiv in Ukraine's northeast, areas near the Russian border where Kremlin forces control only small pockets of land. According to an assessment by the U.K. Defense Ministry, it would take Russia more than four years to fully occupy the four Ukrainian regions it laid claim to in 2022. That would come at a cost of nearly 2 million additional Russian casualties based on current battlefield advances, the ministry said on X. While maintaining that any territorial decisions are for Zelenskyy to make, Trump has repeatedly signaled that a peace agreement would include land swaps, and has urged the Ukrainian president to make a deal. Many European officials are skeptical that a detailed agreement can be reached quickly. Russia's rejection of repeated calls for a ceasefire "complicates the situation,' Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Saturday. "If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater — peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades.'
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