European Leaders to Back Zelensky in Washington, Hoping to Counter Putin
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Finland, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said they would join Zelensky at the White House. Zelensky on Sunday traveled to Brussels to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a top EU leader, and hold a video call with the other leaders to prepare for the meeting with Trump at the White House.
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Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Well-mannered White House welcome for Ukraine leaves many questions
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Gram Slattery WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump gathered European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a hastily arranged White House meeting on Monday to discuss a path to ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Here are takeaways from the talks: WARM TONE, LITTLE SUBSTANCE Seven European leaders, the Ukrainian president, their motorcades, dozens of Trump administration staff and more than 100 journalists swarmed the White House campus on Monday in anticipation of the unusual meeting. Would Trump and Zelenskiy agree on a path to peace? Or would their latest Oval Office session devolve into a bitter squabble as in February? Neither scenario occurred. Zelenskiy, chided for his appearance and manner in February, adjusted both. Wearing more formal clothing and repeatedly expressing his gratitude to Trump, he was greeted by a far more complimentary U.S. president than in the past. But, despite Trump's vow to assist in Ukraine's security after a hypothetical peace deal, there was no immediate sign that any party had substantially changed position on land swaps, security guarantees or sanctions. Instead, Trump ended with promises to host a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the many remaining issues. HEAPING PRAISE "Have you said 'thank you' once?" U.S. Vice President JD Vance asked Zelenskiy in February, accusing him of failing to show sufficient gratitude for U.S. support. On Monday, Zelenskiy made sure that was not an issue. His opening remarks in the Oval Office included eight thank-yous, mostly for Trump. "Thank you so much, Mr. President ... thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you," Zelenskiy said. He included the U.S. first lady, who sent a letter to Putin about abducted children in Ukraine. "Using this opportunity, my thanks to your wife," the Ukrainian president said. "And thanks to all our partners and that you supported this format. And after our meeting, we're going to have leaders who are around us, the UK and France, Germany... all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks (to) them. Thank you very much for your invitation." Unlike in February, Vance this time sat largely silent. COMBAT FORMAL The stakes of the meeting could not have been higher. But one of the most-asked questions among diplomats in D.C. could not have been more frivolous: Would the Ukrainian president wear a suit? The answer: kind of. Zelenskiy showed up to the White House in what one European diplomat described as "almost a suit." His black jacket had tiny lapels and jetted chest pockets. He did not wear a tie. His attire, which split the difference between the battlefield and the boardroom, could be described as combat formal. Those sartorial details matter when it comes to dealing with the U.S. president, who was upset that Zelenskiy did not wear a suit for their February meeting. Zelenskiy passed the fashion test this time, however. When one journalist in the Oval Office said Zelenskiy looked "fabulous," Trump chimed in to agree. "I said the same thing," Trump told reporters. DIVIDE OVER CEASEFIRE The assembled European leaders, Zelenskiy included, were careful to paper over policy disagreements with Trump, keeping their comments vague and showering the U.S. president with compliments. But one point of disagreement did bubble to the surface. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the assembled leaders and media that he wanted to see Putin agree to a ceasefire. Trump had long pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he largely jettisoned that goal after meeting with Putin last week in Alaska, a shift that was widely seen as a diplomatic defeat for Ukraine. The U.S. president now says he is fine trying to move directly to a peace deal. "To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire," Merz said. "I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let's work on that." Trump pushed back, arguing he has solved many conflicts without first reaching a ceasefire. WHOSE BOOTS ON THE GROUND? One of the great mysteries that hung over the summit was what support the U.S. would give to secure any Russia-Ukraine deal long term. Trump hasn't offered U.S. troops' "boots on the ground" to guarantee Ukraine's security from Russia, reflecting American reticence to commit to military entanglements or a head-to-head confrontation with a nuclear power. Instead, he has offered weapons sales and promised that Americans will do business in Ukraine, assurances that Ukrainians see as far less than a security guarantee. Europeans are preparing for a peacekeeping mission backed by their forces. Yet, asked explicitly whether U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine could include U.S. troops in the country, Trump did not rule it out. Instead, he teased an announcement as soon as Monday on the topic. "We'll let you know that, maybe, later today," Trump said. He said Europe was the "first line of defense" but that "we'll be involved." WHAT'S NEXT Trump said he would call Putin and set up a trilateral meeting with Ukraine at a time and place to be determined. Despite some private misgivings, the assembled leaders agreed that such a meeting was a logical next step. Still, the path forward is more complex than Trump and his allies are letting on. For one, Russia has delayed and obstructed high-level meetings with Ukraine in the past, and it was not immediately clear that Putin would actually sit down with Zelenskiy, who he frequently describes as an illegitimate leader. Additionally, it is unclear how much a principal-level meeting would actually advance the cause of peace. The gulf between the Russian and Ukrainian positions is vast. The Kremlin said on Monday the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is a non-starter, a stance that would be hard for Ukraine to swallow. Russia is also calling for Ukraine to fork over significant chunks of territory that Kyiv controls, another proposal that Ukraine's leaders are not entertaining.
Los Angeles Times
16 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Europeans demand a ceasefire before Trump summits with Putin and Zelensky
Russia must agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine before negotiations can advance toward a formal peace agreement, top European leaders told Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, urging the U.S. president to 'put pressure on Russia' in his push to end the war. The meeting had an historic flair with six European heads of government, the NATO secretary general, and the president of the European Commission all converging on Washington for discussions with the president — a flurry of diplomatic activity after Trump's summit last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska sparked widespread fears over the fate of U.S. support for security on the continent. Trump first met with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Oval Office, striking an affable tone following their last, disastrous meeting in the room back in February. This time, Trump emphasized his 'love' for the Ukrainian people and his commitment to provide security guarantees for Kyiv in an ultimate peace settlement with Russia. Zelensky offered only praise and gratitude to Trump, telling reporters that they had their 'best' meeting yet. But an expanded meeting with Zelensky and the chancellor of Germany, the presidents of France and Finland, the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Italy, and the heads of NATO and the European Commission hinted at a more challenging road ahead for the burgeoning peace effort. 'The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones now,' said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. 'The path is open — you opened it. but now the way is open for complicated negotiations, and to be honest, we would all like to see a ceasefire, at the latest, from the next meeting on.' 'I can't imagine the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,' Merz added. 'So let's work on that. And let's put pressure on Russia.' Emmanuel Macron, the French president, sat sternly throughout the start of the meeting before echoing Merz's call. 'Your idea to ask for a truce, a ceasefire, or at least to stop the killings,' Macron said, 'is a necessity, and we all support this idea.' Trump had been in agreement with his European counterparts on the necessity of a ceasefire for months. Zelensky first agreed to one in March. But Putin has refused, pressing Russian advantages on the battlefield, and in Anchorage on Friday convinced Trump to drop his calls for an immediate halt to the fighting. 'All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace. Maybe something like that could happen — as of this moment, it's not happening,' Trump said at the meeting. 'But President Zelensky and President Putin can talk a little bit more about that.' 'I don't know that it's necessary,' Trump added. 'You can do it through the war. But I like the ceasefire from another standpoint — you immediately stop the killing.' The European leaders all emphasized to Trump that they share his desire for peace. But the president of the commission, Ursula Van der Leyen, called for a 'just' peace, and Zelensky would not engage publicly with reporters on Putin's central demand: a surrender of vast swaths of Ukrainian territory to Russian control. Putin first invaded Ukraine in 2014, occupying the Crimean peninsula in a stealth operation and funding an attack on the eastern Donbas region using proxy forces. But he launched a full-scale invasion of the entire country in 2022, leading to the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two. In a hot mic moment, before press were ushered out of the expanded meeting with European leaders, Trump told Macron that he believes the Russian president and former KGB officer would agree to a peace deal because of their personal relationship. He 'wants to make a deal for me,' he said, 'as crazy as it sounds.' European leaders said that detailed U.S. security guarantees — for Ukraine specifically, and more broadly for Europe — were at the top of the agenda for Monday's meetings, including the prospect of U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine to enforce any future peace settlement. Asked whether U.S. forces would be involved, Trump did not rule it out, stating, 'we'll be talking about that.' 'When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help,' he said in the Oval Office. 'It's going to be good. They are first line of defense, because they're there — they are Europe. But we're going to help them out, also. We'll be involved.' Van der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised the Trump administration for discussing what it called 'Article 5-like' security guarantees for Ukraine, referencing a provision of the NATO charter that states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. But the provision also provides countries in the NATO alliance with broad discretion whether to participate in a military response to an attack on a fellow member. Starmer and Macron have expressed a willingness for months to send British and French troops to Ukraine. But the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Moscow would oppose the deployment of NATO troops to the country as 'provocative' and 'reckless,' creating a potential rift in the negotiations. Despite the gulf between Europe and Russia, Trump expressed hope throughout the day that he could schedule a trilateral meeting amongst himself, Putin and Zelensky, possibly within a matter of days. He planned on calling Putin shortly after European leaders left the White House, he told reporters. Trump's team floated inviting Zelensky to attend the negotiations in Alaska last Friday, and Zelensky has said he is willing to participate in a trilateral meeting. He repeated his interest to Trump on Monday and asked him to attend. But Moscow has yet to commit to a trilateral summit. Ahead of Friday's meeting, Russian officials said that conditions weren't right for a direct talks between Putin and the Ukrainian president. The Russian leader has repeatedly questioned Zelensky's legitimacy, and has tried to assassinate him on numerous occasions. In the Oval Office, a Fox News reporter asked Zelensky if he was 'prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths,' or whether he would 'agree to redraw the maps' instead. The Ukrainian president demurred. 'We live under each day attacks,' Zelensky responded. 'We need to stop this war, to stop Russia. And we need the support — American and European partners.' Trump and his team largely adopted Putin's position on Friday that Russia should be able to keep the Ukrainian territory it has occupied by force — and possibly even more of the Donbas region of Donetsk that remains in Ukrainian control — in exchange for an end to the fighting. But European officials were silent on the idea on Monday. The Ukrainian Constitution prohibits the concession of territory without the support of a public referendum, and polls indicate that three out of four Ukrainians oppose giving up land in an attempt to end the war. Steve Witkoff, the president's envoy for special missions, said Sunday that Putin agreed to pass legislation through the Kremlin that would guarantee an end to wars of conquest in Ukraine, or elsewhere in Europe. But Russia has made similar commitments before. In 1994, the United States and Britain signed on to a agreement in Budapest with Ukraine and Russia that ostensibly guaranteed security for Kyiv and vowed to honor Ukraine's territorial integrity. In exchange, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons.
Chicago Tribune
16 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump express hope for talks with Vladimir Putin to bring end to Russia-Ukraine war
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday during talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders that a potential ceasefire and who gets Ukrainian territory seized by Russia should be hashed out during a face-to-face meeting between the warring countries' two leaders. Trump made the comments days after he hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks at a U.S. military base in Alaska in which he tilted toward Putin's demands that Ukraine make concessions over land seized by Russia, which now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. 'We're going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we'll see how that works out,' Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders. Trump and Zelenskyy also expressed hope of soon holding three-way talks among the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian leaders. Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as he met with Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as the president of the European Commission and the head of NATO. Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine's security. He said instead that there would be a 'NATO-like' security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders. 'They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we'll help them out with that,' Trump said. 'I think its very important to get the deal done.' Speaking Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected the idea of a possible NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Such a scenario could see further escalation and 'unpredictable consequences,' ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned. Trump's engagement with Zelenskyy had a strikingly different feel to their last Oval Office meeting in February. It was a disastrous moment that led to Trump abruptly ending talks with the Ukrainian delegation, and temporarily pausing some aid for Kyiv, after he and Vice President JD Vance complained that Zelenskyy had shown insufficient gratitude for U.S. military assistance. Zelenskyy at the start of the meeting presented a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for Trump's wife, Melania. Trump hand-delivered a letter from the U.S. first lady over the weekend urging him to consider the children impacted by the conflict and bring an end to the brutal 3 1/2 year war. Trump at one point needled Zelenskyy over Ukraine delaying elections. They had been scheduled for last year but were delayed because of the ongoing Russian invasion. Ukrainian law does not allow presidential elections to be held when martial law is in effect. Trump joked that a similar circumstance wouldn't play well in the U.S. Zelenskyy faced criticism during his February meeting from a conservative journalist for appearing in the Oval Office in a long sleeve T-shirt. This time he appeared in dark jacket and buttoned-shirt. Zelenskyy has said his typically less formal attire since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 is to show solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers. Monday's hastily assembled meeting came after Trump met in Alaska on Friday with Putin. After that meeting, Trump has said the onus is now on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land that he said could end the war. Trump said he plans to talk to Putin after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders. 'We'll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we're going to know whether or not we're going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue,' Trump said. The European leaders were left out of Trump's summit with Putin. They want to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. Many arrived at the White House with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine's interests — a rare show of diplomatic force. Ahead of Monday's meeting, Trump suggested that Ukraine could not regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, setting off an armed conflict that led to its broader 2022 invasion. 'President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,' Trump wrote Sunday night on social media. 'Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!' Zelenskyy responded with his own post late Sunday, saying, 'We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.' He said that 'peace must be lasting,' not as it was after Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine eight years ago, and 'Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.' Putin opposes Ukraine joining NATO outright, yet Trump's team claims the Russian leader is open to Western allies agreeing to defend Ukraine if it comes under attack. European leaders suggested forging a temporary ceasefire is not off the table. Following his meeting with Putin on Friday, Trump dropped his demand for an immediate ceasefire and said that he would look to secure a final peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine — a sudden shift to a position favored by Putin. At the start of Monday's meeting with European leaders, the German and French leaders praised Trump for opening a path to peace, but they urged the U.S. president to push Russia for a ceasefire. 'I would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting,' said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The other European leaders in attendance were: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. European leaders are still looking for a concrete details about what U.S. involvement would be toward building a security guarantee for Ukraine. Still, Rutte, the NATO Secretary-General, called Trump's commitment to security guarantees 'a big step, a breakthrough.' Zelenskyy outlined what he said his country needed to feel secure, which included a 'strong Ukrainian army' through weapons sales and training. The second part, he said, would depend on the outcome of Monday's talks and what EU countries, NATO and the U.S. would be able to guarantee to the war-torn country. Trump briefed Zelenskyy and European allies shortly after the Putin meeting. Details from the discussions emerged in a scattershot way that seemed to rankle the U.S. president, who had chosen not to outline any terms when appearing afterward with Putin. European officials confirmed that Trump told them Putin is still seeking control of the entire Donbas region, even though Ukraine still controls a meaningful share of it.
