U.S. President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss how to end Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine.
Months of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting haven’t made headway, but the stakes have risen since Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. After that summit, Trump abandoned the requirement of reaching a ceasefire in order to hold further talks and aligned with Putin’s position that negotiations should focus on a long-term settlement instead.
The presence of several European leaders at the talks in Washington shows how central the conflict — and any settlement — is to wider security questions on the continent.
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They are looking to safeguard Ukraine and Europe more broadly from any further aggression from Moscow — but also are providing a show of support for Zelenskyy after his last visit to the White House led to an angry confrontation. The American and Ukrainian leaders are scheduled to first meet privately, without the Europeans.
On “Trump’s ultimate policy towards the Russia-Ukraine war hangs not just the future of Ukraine security, but Europe’s as well,’’ said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The stakes could not be higher for the continent.’’
Here’s what to know about the Washington meeting.
The talks could be a pivotal moment in the war
After meeting Putin in Alaska, Trump is making a big push for a breakthrough.
A lot of issues need to be resolved, however, and the two sides have previously established red lines that are incompatible, including questions of whether Ukraine will cede any land to Russia, the future of Ukraine’s army and whether the country will have any guarantee against further Russian aggression.
In a post on social media Sunday night, Trump appeared to shift the burden for ending the war to Zelenskyy, whose country was invaded in February 2022.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” he wrote.
A comprehensive peace deal could still be a long way off.
Putin wants the Donbas
As a condition for peace, the Russian leader wants Kyiv to give up the Donbas, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely.
In his Sunday night post, Trump wrote that Zelenskyy should also accept Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
As part of a deal, Putin has said the United States and its European allies can provide Ukraine with a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense pledge, according to a senior U.S. official.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff called that a “game-changing” step though he offered few details on how it would work.
Ukraine has long pressed for some kind of guarantee that would prevent Russia from invading again.
Ukraine won’t surrender land to Russia
Zelenskyy has rejected Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the Donbas region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, since the Ukrainian Constitution forbids giving up territory or trading land. That also means he can’t cede Crimea either.
Instead, freezing the front line — which snakes roughly 1,000 kilometers from northeastern to southeastern Ukraine — seems to be the most the Ukrainian people might accept.
Russia currently holds about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Europe’s security is also at stake in the talks
European leaders see Ukraine’s fight as a bulwark against any Kremlin ambitions to threaten other countries in eastern Europe and beyond.
French President Emmanuel Macron described Ukraine as an “outpost of our collective defense if Russia wanted to advance again.”
“If we are weak with Russia today, we’ll be preparing the conflicts of tomorrow and they will impact the Ukrainians and — make no mistake — they can impact us, too,” Macron said Sunday.
The European political heavyweights expected in Washington are Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Civilians are killed as the fighting continues
Ukraine has in recent months been losing more territory against Russia’s bigger army, and Moscow’s forces breached Ukrainian lines in a series of minor infiltrations in the Donetsk region ahead of the Alaska summit. But there is no sign of a looming, major Russian breakthrough on the front line.
Both sides have also kept up their daily long-range strikes behind the front line.
A Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed six people late Sunday, including an 18-month-old and a 16-year-old, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. The attack on the northeastern city injured 20 others, including six children, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday reported intercepting 23 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the annexed Crimean peninsula overnight.
Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed.
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