Following Friday's Alaska summit, US President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday, in a meeting that will also draw several European leaders as pressure builds to find a path to ending the war with Russia.
It is quite possible that Monday's meeting could prove even more crucial to the future of Ukraine than Friday's US-Russia summit in Alaska.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected in Washington for the talks, which come just days after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
That Alaska meeting saw Trump drop demands for a ceasefire in favour of pursuing a “permanent peace deal”, with a US envoy later suggesting Putin had tentatively agreed to NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine. “Big progress on Russia. Stay tuned!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform without elaborating.
The presence of so many heads of state at short notice underscores the high stakes. Diplomats say European leaders are concerned Trump may try to press Zelensky into concessions after the Ukrainian president was excluded from Friday’s Trump-Putin talks.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed that view, telling CBS that speculation about Zelensky being forced into a deal was a “stupid media narrative”.
NATO leaders are also keen to avoid a repeat of February’s Oval Office row, when Zelensky clashed with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance, leaving relations badly strained. Since then, European officials have worked behind the scenes to repair ties, with Zelensky encouraged to frame his case in terms of deal-making. The two presidents have held private conversations, including at the Vatican in April, and by July Zelensky described a phone call with Trump as “the best conversation we have had”.
Meanwhile, Russia’s forces continue to advance. They now control almost a fifth of Ukraine, three years after launching their full-scale invasion. At a virtual summit on Sunday, Zelensky and European leaders stressed they would present a “united front” in Washington.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin had signalled readiness to accept “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine and hinted at limited concessions over contested regions.
Rubio urged caution over expectations, saying “we’re still a long ways off” from ending the conflict, Europe’s deadliest in 80 years.