{"id":352039,"date":"2025-08-17T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352039\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:26:12","slug":"european-leaders-to-join-zelenskyy-for-meeting-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352039\/","title":{"rendered":"European leaders to join Zelenskyy for meeting with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump on ending Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, with the possibility of U.S. security guarantees<\/a> now on the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

European leaders, including heavyweights France, Britain and Germany, are rallying around the Ukrainian<\/a> leader after his exclusion from Trump\u2019s summit on Friday<\/a> with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their pledge to be at Zelenskyy\u2019s side at the White House on Monday is an apparent effort to ensure the meeting<\/a> goes better than the last one in February, when Trump<\/a> berated Zelenskyy in a heated Oval Office encounter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated and so they want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt,\u201d said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France\u2019s military mission at the United Nations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Putin agreed at the meeting in Alaska with Trump to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO\u2019s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1\/2-year war.<\/p>\n

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Zelenskyy, said \u201cwe welcome President Trump\u2019s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. And the \u2018Coalition of the willing\u2019 — including the European Union — is ready to do its share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen was joined Sunday by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finnish President Alexander Stubb in saying they will take part in Monday\u2019s talks at the White House, as will secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n

The European leaders\u2019 demonstration of support could help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia.<\/p>\n

Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said European leaders are trying to \u201cshape this fast-evolving agenda.\u201d After the Alaska summit, the idea of a ceasefire appears all-but-abandoned, with the narrative shifting toward Putin\u2019s agenda of ensuring Ukraine does not join NATO or even the EU.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday that a possible ceasefire is \u201cnot off the table\u201d but that the best way to end the war would be through a \u201cfull peace deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin has implied that he sees Europe as a hindrance to negotiations. He has also resisted meeting Zelenskyy in person, saying that such a meeting can only take place once the groundwork for a peace deal has been laid.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the press after his meeting with Trump, the Russian leader raised the idea that Kyiv and other European capitals could \u201ccreate obstacles\u201d to derail potential progress with \u201cbehind-the-scenes intrigue.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Zelenskyy offers the Europeans the \u201conly way\u201d to get into the discussions about the future of Ukraine and European security, says RUSI\u2019s Melvin.<\/p>\n

However, the sheer number of European leaders potentially in attendance means the group will have to be \u201cmindful\u201d not to give \u201ccontradictory\u201d messages, Melvin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk is they look heavy-handed and are ganging up on Trump,\u201d he added. \u201cTrump won\u2019t want to be put in a corner.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although details remain hazy on what Article 5-like security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe would entail for Ukraine, it could mirror NATO membership terms, in which an attack on one member of the alliance is seen as an attack on all.<\/p>\n

In remarks made on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union,\u201d Witkoff said Friday\u2019s meeting with Trump was the first time Putin has been had heard to agree to such an arrangement.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy continues to stress the importance of both U.S. and European involvement in any negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cA security guarantee is a strong army. Only Ukraine can provide that. Only Europe can finance this army, and weapons for this army can be provided by our domestic production and European production. But there are certain things that are in short supply and are only available in the United States,\u201d he said at the press conference Sunday alongside Von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also pushed back against Trump\u2019s assertion \u2014 which aligned with Putin\u2019s preference \u2014 that the two sides should negotiate a complete end to the war, rather than first securing a ceasefire. Zelenskyy said a ceasefire would provide breathing room to review Putin\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons,\u201d he said. \u201cPutin does not want to stop the killing, but he must do it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014 Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Associated Press writers Pan Pylas in London, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[766,12261,124351,32,34,2000,299,5187,1699,1945,4179,8614,807,2820,2992,2821,124352,56247,285,7661,7070,657,7662,11654,5213,1220,333,2601,7660,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-352039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-alexander-stubb","9":"tag-district-of-columbia","10":"tag-dominique-trinquand","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-friedrich-merz","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-international-agreements","20":"tag-keir-starmer","21":"tag-marco-rubio","22":"tag-mark-rutte","23":"tag-nato","24":"tag-neil-melvin","25":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","28":"tag-steve-witkoff","29":"tag-ukraine","30":"tag-ukraine-government","31":"tag-united-kingdom-government","32":"tag-united-states-government","33":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","34":"tag-vladimir-putin","35":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","36":"tag-war-and-unrest","37":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}