European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Monday after President Trump’s historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on the social platform X on Sunday that she will join the meeting “at the request of President Zelenskyy.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s office also announced he will be traveling to Washington Monday for “political talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European heads of state and government,” according to a translated statement from his office.

The statement said the purpose of the trip is the “exchange of information” with Trump after his meeting with Putin and said Merz plans to discuss peace efforts and “underscore Germany’s interest in a swift peace agreement in Ukraine.”

“The talks will address, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. This includes maintaining the pressure of sanctions,” the translated statement said.

French President Emmanuel Macron will also attend the meeting, according to local reports of his office’s statement.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also plan to join the meeting, The New York Times reported.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s office confirmed that he will attend the meeting.

The meeting comes as European leaders have doubled down on their commitment to Ukraine over the weekend.

Trump spoke with Zelensky and European leaders on Air Force One while returning home from his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since his first term in office. He signaled a shift in his position on the war — calling for a direct peace agreement without a ceasefire.

“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Saturday morning.

“President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin,” he added.

Zelensky signaled his support for a trilateral meeting between the three world leaders in a post on X.

“President Trump informed about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion,” the Ukrainian leader wrote. “It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation.”

Monday’s meeting will mark the first time Zelensky visits Washington since the infamous Oval Office spat earlier this year in which Trump and Vice President Vance blasted the Ukrainian leader for not expressing gratitude for U.S. support.

Trump Putin Alaska Summit Highlights: Donald Trump appeared to have a change of heart following his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday. The US President has deviated sharply from his original calls for an immediate ceasefire — echoing the Kremlin position favouring direct peace negotiations without implementing a ceasefire by Saturday evening. He is now slated to meet with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday for a fresh round of discussions.

Trump spoke to Zelensky as well as European leaders after the Summit — claiming that “it was determined by all” that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement. He explained via Truth Social that this would end the war rather than a ceasefire agreement that often did not hold up.

According to later reports, European leaders have now made it clear (publicly and privately) that they are not in agreement with Trump. A statement issued later on Saturday did not echo his support for a direct peace agreement. Britain, France, Germany and others also threatened to increase economic penalties against Russia on Saturday — “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues.”

What was discussed at the Trump-Putin Meeting?

The nearly three-hour-long meeting between the two heads ended without any major agreement. At the press conference after the summit Trump offered a vague assessment, saying “many points were agreed to” while refusing to specify if Ukraine was among them.

“So there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he told reporters.

Putin, meanwhile, repeated his hard-line demands: Ukraine must cede territory, disarm, stay out of NATO, and even change its government — conditions Kyiv and the West have long dismissed.

Putin publicly endorsed Trump’s claim that the 2022 invasion wouldn’t have happened if he’d been president.

Trump said he would call NATO leaders and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to brief them, and hinted at “probably” meeting Putin again soon. When Putin teased “next time in Moscow,”

Why was this meeting important? The meeting was significant as this was one of the biggest step by Donald Trump to convince Putin to cease the war he had unleashed against Ukarine. After previously claiming during Ukraine “in 24 hours,” Trump’s approach has evolved into a more cautious, diplomatic play. He has made several overtures to Putin to end the war, but has been left red-faced. The last time a sitting president met Putin was in 2021, when Biden flew to Geneva for his only face-to-face meeting with Putin.

What Trump has proposed?

Ahead of the summit, Trump had floated a “land-swapping” proposal. This is a potential exchange of occupied Ukrainian territories to bring the war to an end. He insisted any territorial deal must involve Ukraine.

During a preparatory video call with European leaders, French President Macron confirmed that Trump had emphasized Ukraine’s involvement and rejected negotiating territory without Kyiv and guaranteed post-war security—though “not involving NATO.” Zelenskyy has said that Russia should face new sanctions if it does not agree to an “immediate ceasefire”.

What’s in it for India?

U.S. authorities, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have warned more secondary tariffs could hit India if Trump’s peace talks with Putin fail to produce results. This puts export-reliant sectors—like textiles, jewelry, machinery, and pharma—under direct threat. India is already faces a 50% U.S. tariff on exports, a combination of a 25% base tariff plus a penalty tied to its purchases of Russian oil and weapons

Live Updates

Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin’s stance on the war after the Alaska summit as a way to buy time.

European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Washington, DC on Monday, seeking an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, after United States President Donald Trump dropped both his push for a ceasefire and the threat of punitive actions against Russia following his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after Russia’s invasion, had been one of Trump’s core demands before Friday’s Alaska summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.

Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Putin agreed at the summit with Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war.

“We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he said on the CNN news programme State of the Union. Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Putin agree to that.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, speaking in Brussels on Sunday after meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in person and other European leaders virtually, said the current front lines of the war should be the basis for peace talks.

“We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now,” Zelenskyy said, adding that European leaders support this and reiterating his long-held position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal.

Advertisement

But after the summit on Friday with Putin yielded no clear breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire – a move that aligns with Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.

According to a New York Times report, after his meeting with Putin, the US president also told European leaders that he had offered to support a plan to end the war that involved Ukraine giving up parts of its territory to Russia.

Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin’s stance as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances, and they have expressed unease over Trump’s land swap proposal from the outset.

In an effort to try show a firm, united front to the US president in White House talks on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and von der Leyen will accompany Zelenskyy to Washington, DC.

“The talks will address, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression,” the German government said in a statement about the trip to the US capital. “This includes maintaining pressure on sanctions.”

The goal for Monday’s talks in Washington is to present a united front between Ukraine and its European allies, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday. “If we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflicts,” he said.

Macron said Kyiv’s allies in Sunday’s “coalition of the willing” meeting, which leaders joined by video before heading to Washington, wanted strong and lasting peace in Ukraine and for Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be respected.

Strength and safety in numbers appear to be factors in the group visit, with memories still fresh about the hostile reception Zelenskyy received in February from Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance in a public White House dressing-down, castigating the Ukrainian leader as being ungrateful and “disrespectful”.

No land swaps

While Zelenskyy has welcomed Trump’s efforts to end the war, in a post on social media on Saturday, he warned that “it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades”.

The Ukrainian president has also repeatedly reiterated that Kyiv will not swap any of its land to attain a ceasefire. Ukraine’s constitution forbids the ceding of territory.

Advertisement

According to Zelenskyy, Putin has asked that Russia be handed over all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a third of which Kyiv still holds.

In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian president said that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier” and pointed out that he doesn’t have the authority to sign off on land swaps. He said that changing Ukraine’s 1991 borders runs counter to the country’s constitution.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months.

In his statement after the Alaska summit, Putin signalled no movement in Russia’s long-held demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv’s desired membership in the NATO alliance.

He also warned Ukraine and its European allies not to “create any obstacles” and “that they will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigue”.

Trilateral summit in the works?

The diplomatic focus now switches to Zelenskyy’s talks at the White House on Monday with the European leaders in tow.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said getting to a peace agreement would still take a lot of work.

“We’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement,” he said. “We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement. So we’re still a long ways off.”

“Now, ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear, there are going to be consequences,” Rubio told the ABC News programme This Week. “But we’re trying to avoid that. And the way we’re trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities.”

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Brussels, said Ukraine and the European Union were “walking a fine line” during the press conference. While attempting to show a united front, they were also mindful of avoiding any strong statements that could further upset the Trump administration.

Zelenskyy and von der Leyen were intentionally vague when asked about a ceasefire, which they had long cast as a prerequisite for further talks, saying that terminology did not matter.

“They are waiting to hear what Trump is going to offer tomorrow in DC,” Ahelbarra said.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Voloydmyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain at Mariyinsky Palace, in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May.

European leaders said on Sunday that they would join President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine when he meets with President Trump on Monday at the White House, as they strive to present a united front against Russia and avoid being sidelined in peace talks.

The presence of at least six European heads of state — including Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and President Alexander Stubb of Finland, two of Mr. Trump’s favored counterparts — highlights the continent’s effort to smooth relations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky, whose last White House meeting in February descended into a public clash.

European leaders have spent months cultivating ties with Mr. Trump to strengthen their hand in pressing Ukraine’s case, while also coaching Mr. Zelensky on how to better engage with Mr. Trump. On Sunday, the Europeans met online and in person with Mr. Zelensky to prepare for the meeting in Washington.

“We’ll give a few good pieces of advice,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany told the German television broadcaster ZDF ahead of the meeting.

Mr. Merz will travel to Washington with Mr. Starmer and Mr. Stubb, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France; Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy; NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte; and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm.

Mr. Trump will first meet with Mr. Zelensky. The two leaders are then scheduled to join a working lunch and a larger meeting with all the European leaders, according to European officials familiar with the preparations for the White House meeting.

The meeting will come three days after talks in Alaska between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ended inconclusively but fueled concerns in Europe that Mr. Trump’s thinking may have tilted toward Russia’s position.

On Saturday, after his summit with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump sided with the Russian president in calling for a direct peace agreement that would be likely to see Ukraine cede unconquered territory to Russia, rather than securing a cease-fire first. Negotiations toward a peace agreement rather than an immediate cease-fire would give Russia time to continue exploiting its advantage on the battlefield to seize territory before front lines are settled in any deal.

Mr. Trump claimed that Mr. Zelensky and European leaders had agreed on the point. But earlier in the week, the group had called for refusing to discuss peace terms until a cease-fire was in place.

Russia has long pushed for a direct peace deal that would address a broad range of issues and impose onerous demands on Ukraine, including territorial concessions. Mr. Trump’s about-face sent Ukrainian and European officials scrambling to coordinate their positions before pressing their case together to Mr. Trump at the White House to gain more leverage.

They seemed careful not to antagonize Mr. Trump, issuing public statements that did not ask him to reverse course, but also did not echo his claim that peace talks were preferable to a cease-fire.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels on Sunday, Ms. von der Leyen said the term cease-fire was not “so important” and that what mattered was to end the fighting. “Whether we call it a cease-fire or it’s a peace deal — stop the killings.”

Alongside her, Mr. Zelensky said he agreed on the terminology. But he added that it was “impossible” to negotiate “under the pressure of weapons,” or if hostilities continued during pursuit of a direct peace deal.

“So it’s necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding that negotiations should be based on the current front lines.

In a social media post after his meeting with Ms. von der Leyen, Mr. Zelensky made his point clear. “We agreed on the necessity of a ceasefire for subsequent diplomatic steps,” he said.

After the news conference, Mr. Zelensky joined a virtual meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, a group of European countries prepared to help safeguard an eventual peace, including, in some cases, by sending troops to Ukrainian soil after the conflict ends.

Such troop deployments could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine that Mr. Trump called for as part of a peace deal. On Sunday, Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state and acting national security adviser, said on Fox News that European leaders involved in talks with Ukraine would play an important role in discussions of long-term security guarantees intended to deter future Russian incursions.

Ms. von der Leyen said she welcomed Mr. Trump’s willingness to back security guarantees for Ukraine. “And the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share,” she said.

Alyce McFadden and Jim Tankersley contributed reporting.

1 of 2 | European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday. Photo by Olivier Hoslety/EPA

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Seven European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday in a bid to end the war against Russia.

Zelensky and Trump announced the meeting on Saturday. On Sunday, it was disclosed they will be joined by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Zelensky last saw Trump in the White House on Feb. 23. During the contentious meeting, Trump accused Zelensky of “gambling with World War III” and being “disrespectful” to the United States. Plans for a cease-fire and a news conference were called off.

Two months later, the two leaders met amicably when they went to the funeral for Pope Franic at the Vatican on April 26.

Zelensky and von der Leyen met in Brussel, Belgium, on Sunday, joining a “coalition of willing,” who are Ukraine’s main European allies, in a video conference.

European leaders on Saturday signed a joint statement that, “as President Trump said, ‘there’s no deal until there’s a deal.’ As envisioned by President Trump, the next step must now be further talks, including President Zelenskyy, whom he will meet soon.”

In addition to the attendee’s of Monday’s meeting in Washington, the statement was signed by European Council President Antonio Costa and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The leaders of the Nordic-Baltic Eight — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden — said in a statement that there should be “no decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine and no decisions on Europe without Europe.”

Trump posted Sunday morning on Truth Social “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED.”

Minutes earlier, he also criticized the media in two posts, writing that “if I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News, and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake and a very bad deal. That’s why they are the FAKE NEWS! Also, they should talk about the 6 WARS, etc., I JUST STOPPED!!! MAGA.”

Earlier, he wrote that “it’s incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me. There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me. I had a great meeting in Alaska on Biden’s stupid War, a war that should have never happened!!!”

It had been more than 24 hours since he posted about the war in Ukraine.

After speaking with Zelensky and European leaders following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska, he wrote that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

This stance shifted to an end to the 3 1/2-year-old war that began with Russia’s invasion of the sovereign nation.

Zelensky was not invited to the summit with the two leaders.

CNN reported Trump told the Europeans he wants a summit among himself, Putin and Zelensky on Friday if talks go well on Monday with Ukraine’s leader.

Information from Putin and Trump has been light on details. They spoke to reporters for a total of 12 minutes and took no questions on Friday.

They didn’t mention whether Russia or Ukraine will give up land acquired during the war.

The three-on-three meeting included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also is Trump’s national security adviser, as well as Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

“The point was that we began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal,” Witkoff said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. “We made so much progress at this meeting with regard to all the other ingredients necessary for a peace deal that we, that President Trump pivoted to that place.”

Putin spoke about “land swaps” during the meeting, Witkoff said.

Witkoff said that Putin discussed land swaps during their meeting, but did not go into specifics beyond that Putin now suggesting swaps occur at the current front lines rather than the administrative boundaries of at least some of the regions.

“The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,” Witkoff said. “Hopefully, we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there.”

The Trump administration has said it is up to Zelensky to accept a deal, and noted that Zelensky has opposed land swaps.

Trump told the European leaders that Putin insists Ukraine allow Russia to totally control the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine where intense fighting has taken place since 2022, two sources told The New York Times. In exchange, he would freeze the current front lines elsewhere in Ukraine — the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and promised not to attack Ukraine again or other European nation.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk, which represents 30% of the eastern region. Russia had partially seized the Donbas in 2014 when the nation annexed the Crimean peninsula and captured key areas of the region in 2022.

Witkoff also said Putin agreed to allow a collective defense provision for Ukraine in a peace deal.

For the first time, Witkoff said Putin offered a version of NATO’s Article 5 provision — that the groups members will come to the defense of an ally under attack — with Ukraine, but without involvement from NATO.

“We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee,” Witkoff said on CNN.

“Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission,” Witkoff said. And so what we were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that and could live with that – and everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with – but assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection.”

Putin hasn’t spoken directly about aspects of a possible peace deal.

Zelensky thanked the European nations’ support since the beginning of the war in February 2025, and said “sanctions show we are serious.”

“We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now,” Zelensky said at a news conference with the EU’s von der Leyen. “The contact line is the best line for talking […] Russia is still unsuccessful in Donetsk region. Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years, and the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land.

“Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia and the trilateral Ukraine-United States-Russia. So far, Russia gives no sign that trilateral will happen, and if Russia refuses, then new sanctions must follow.”

Zelensky said he wanted more clarity on the “security guarantees” from Trump.

Unlike Trump, Zelensky has urged a ceasefire before a peace deal.

“First we have to stop the killings,” Zelensky said. “Putin has many demands, but we do not know all of them, and if there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all.

“It’s impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So it’s necessary to cease-fire and work quickly on a final deal. We’ll talk about it in Washington. Putin does not want to stop the killing, but he must do it,” the Ukrainian president said.

Von der Leyen, noting Ukraine must become a “steel porcupine, undigestible for potential invaders,” said there must be no limitations on Ukraine’s military.

“We must have strong security guarantees to protect both Ukraine and Europe’s vital security interests. Ukraine must be able to uphold its sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” she said.

Situation in Ukraine

Russia continued aerial attacks overnight with five people dead and at least 11 injured in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, local authorities said.

Russia launched 60 long-range drones and one ballistic missile, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, as 40 other drones were downed by Ukrainian defenses.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said 46 drones were intercepted from Ukraine. One person was injured in Russia’s Voronzh region from debris, the local governor said.

In central Kyiv at a market, the BBC reported few people were hopeful about the meeting on Monday.

“The signs don’t tell us about good expectations for tomorrow,” said 35-year-old Iryna Levchuk while picking fruit and with her dog Susy, rescued from the frontline city of Kherson.

Regarding a land swap, Dmitril said: “This won’t work — none of this will work. You’ve got to explain to the people that they need to negotiate with the terrorists.”