Zelensky and European leaders head to White House for Trump talks on Ukraine peace deal terms
Washington DC - US President Donald Trump said reclaiming Crimea or entering NATO were off the table for Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for Monday talks aimed at ending the war with Russia.
Zelensky, who has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, will meet Trump in Washington on Monday, accompanied by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders.
The meeting comes on the heels of a summit between Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, which failed to yield a ceasefire breakthrough but produced promises from both leaders to provide "robust security guarantees" to Ukraine.
Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska meeting, after which Trump pivoted to the long-held Russian position that a ceasefire was not needed before a final peace deal.
"President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump posted on his social media platform. "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!!!"
Trump and Zelensky are expected to meet one-on-one before being joined by a cohort of European leaders on Monday, according to the White House schedule.
Along with von der Leyen, NATO chief Mark Rutte and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy will be present.
It will be the first time Zelensky visits Washington since a bust-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February when the two men berated the Ukrainian leader for being "ungrateful."
On Sunday night, after arriving in Washington, Zelensky said: "We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably."
Security guarantees for Ukraine
Since the Oval Office row in February, Trump has grown more critical of Putin and shown some signs of frustration as Russia repeatedly stalled on peace talks.
But Washington has not placed extra sanctions on Moscow and the lavish welcome offered to Putin in Alaska on his first visit to the West since he invaded Ukraine in 2022 was seen as a diplomatic coup for Russia.
Speaking in Brussels on the eve of his visit to the US, Zelensky said he was keen to hear more about what Putin and Trump discussed in Alaska. He also hailed Washington's offer of security guarantees to Ukraine as "historic."
Trump said he spoke to Putin about the possibility of a NATO-style collective defense guarantee for Ukraine.
The promise would be outside of the framework of the Western military alliance that Ukraine wants to join and which is seen as an existential threat by Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron said European leaders would ask Trump "to what extent" Washington is ready to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine.
Ukraine-Russia land dispute
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made "some concessions" regarding five Ukrainian regions that Russia fully or partially controls, and said that "there is an important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there.
"That discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday," he said, without giving details.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a disputed referendum and did the same in 2022 for four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia – even though its forces have not fully captured them.
A source briefed on a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday told AFP that the US leader was "inclined to support" a Russian demand to be given territory it has not yet captured in the Donbas, an area that includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and which has seen the deadliest battles of the war.
In exchange, the source cited Trump as saying, Moscow would agree to "freeze" the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces hold swathes of territory but not the regional capitals.
Russia has until now insisted that Ukraine pull its forces out of all four regions as a precondition to any deal.
Trump-Putin-Zelensky meeting?
There is concern in Europe that Washington could pressure Ukraine to accept Russia's terms.
"For peace to prevail, pressure must be applied to the aggressor, not the victim of aggression," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Sunday.
Macron said, "There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia."
Zelensky has repeatedly pushed back against ceding territory, but said he is ready to discuss the issue in the context of a trilateral summit with Trump and Putin.
Trump has raised the possibility of such a meeting, but Russia has played down the prospect.
Moscow's forces have been advancing gradually but steadily in Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv killed three people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian authorities said Monday, while a separate overnight attack on the Sumy region near the border wounded two others.
Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS