Podiums are set up for a press conference in the East Room of the White House, Washington, DC, 28 February 2025. Photo: EPA/JIM LO SCALZO / POOL
European leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte have arrived at the White House in Washington ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss a possible peace deal for Ukraine.
Trump, who is due to meet with Zelensky one-on-one in the Oval Office before being joined by seven European leaders, is expected to lay out the terms for peace he negotiated with Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska on Friday.
Zelensky, who has repeatedly stressed that ceding any Ukrainian territory to Russia would be unconstitutional, reiterated that position on Monday and said that any peace deal must be “lasting” to prevent Russia attacking Ukraine again in the future.
The European leaders attending the multilateral meeting are UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melonia, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte, all of whom cleared their diaries at short notice to attend the extraordinary meeting in the hope of convincing Trump to push back against Moscow’s demands.
Shortly before arriving at the White House, Zelensky took to social media to call out Russia’s latest airstrikes on Ukraine, which killed 10 people in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia on Monday. “The Russian war machine continues to destroy lives despite everything,” Zelensky wrote on X, adding, “Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts.”
“That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings. That is why reliable security guarantees are required. That is why Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war. The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: ‘Stop.’”
A bullish Trump also took to social media ahead of the meeting on Monday to claim that what he called “the Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners” would refuse to give him any credit even if Russia surrendered and gifted Moscow and St. Petersburg to the United States.
In another post on Truth Social, Trump claimed to have “settled 6 Wars in 6 months” and boasted: “I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them.”