KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces significant risks and an uncertain reception when he meets with President Trump on Friday to discuss the war with Russia and Mr. Trump’s sharp diplomatic pivot since taking office.
The meeting’s centerpiece is expected to be an economic development and mineral access deal that Mr. Trump is pitching to Kyiv and Mr. Zelenskyy’s efforts to nail down security guarantees from the U.S. in the war.
Although Mr. Trump has suggested the Ukrainian leader’s political standing back home has cratered, the recent criticisms of his government have ironically boosted Mr. Zelenskyy’s support at home. Many Ukrainian observers say the U.S. diplomatic outreach to Russia over the past month and Ukraine’s increasing headwinds have revived Mr. Zelenskyy’s domestic standing.
Foreign policy and security analyst James Rushton said in an interview in the Ukrainian capital that ordinary Ukrainians struggle to understand the Trump administration’s shift from “peace through strength” to what they see as “appeasement through weakness.”
“Before the inauguration, Trump was talking about peace through strength, which sounded pretty good if you’re a Ukrainian,” he said. “It sounded like the U.S. might try to impose their will upon Russia, telling them, ‘You either stop fighting or we’re going to increase military aid to Ukraine.’”
Mr. Rushton noted that Mr. Trump had floated the prospect of additional sanctions against the Russian economy and of targeting Moscow’s revenue streams by pressuring OPEC+, the alliance of oil-producing nations, to reduce oil prices and drain the Kremlin’s coffers.
The events of recent days have altered that perception radically.
“Trump and people in the Trump administration have basically given unilateral concessions to Putin,” said Mr. Rushton. “They’ve talked about reestablishing diplomatic ties, about reestablishing commercial arrangements. And Russia has literally given nothing. They’re still maintaining that they hold territorial claims on even areas of Ukraine that they don’t currently control.”
Some Ukrainian supporters in the Republican Party are speaking up on Mr. Zelenskyy’s behalf.
“There seems to be moral ambiguity when it comes to the responsibility for starting this war. Russia started it, not Ukraine,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said in a telephone interview. “We stand on the side of what is right.”
“A lot of my fellow Republicans agree with me, though I can’t name them for obvious reasons, but … they can hear what is going on,” Mr. Bacon said. “We are going to lose what makes us great. We might still be powerful and the first global superpower, but I’m afraid that at some point, we might not be the leader of the free world.”
En route
Mr. Zelenskyy met Thursday with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on his way to Washington, The Associated Press reported. After the Washington stop, the Ukrainian president is expected to attend a meeting of European leaders on the next steps in the war hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who met with Mr. Trump on Thursday for discussions that included the Ukraine crisis.
While answering reporters’ questions alongside Mr. Starmer, Mr. Trump offered a preview of some issues he and Mr. Zelenskyy will discuss. They include the delicate questions of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin can be trusted to honor a peace agreement and which forces will enforce any ceasefire deal.
Russian officials said again Thursday that they would never accept troops from Ukraine’s European allies as part of a peacekeeping force, and Mr. Trump said that question could be addressed after an agreement to stop the war is reached.
“You’re talking about a peacekeeping force. We have to make a deal first. Right now, we don’t have a deal,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
Mr. Trump expressed confidence that Mr. Putin could be trusted not to renew the war. Russian and U.S. diplomats met again in Istanbul to discuss improving bilateral diplomatic ties. Mr. Trump’s advisers said the talks are progressing on a separate track from the peace talks.
“I think he’ll keep his word,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin. “I’ve spoken to him. I’ve known him for a long time now; we had to go through the Russian hoax together.”
One central question remains: What security guarantees will the Trump administration be willing to offer to Ukraine as part of the deal? Mr. Zelenskyy said the guarantees must be included, but Mr. Trump suggested during a meeting this week with French President Emmanuel Macron that Europe, not the United States, will protect Ukraine.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that,” he said.
Mr. Zelenskyy told a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, “If we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire. Nothing will work, nothing.”
AP, citing the proposed draft text, reported that Washington and Kyiv were looking to establish a co-owned, managed investment fund to finance the massive rebuilding needs of a postwar Ukraine.
The wording on security and military assistance was vague, AP said. According to the document, the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace.” Washington has “a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
“Participants will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments as defined in the Fund agreement,” it states. “The American people desire to invest alongside Ukraine in a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine.”
A senior Ukrainian official told AP that the U.S. would not directly own Ukraine’s mineral and other resources. Instead, the co-owned fund would receive 50% of the revenue from natural resource deposits once they are developed, which could be a vehicle for the U.S. to recoup some of the costs of supporting Kyiv throughout the war.
The president expressed confidence that he and the Ukrainian leader could reach a compromise and said the long-term presence of American commercial interests embedded in the Ukrainian economy would be one guarantee that Russia would not pursue its aggression.
• David R. Sands contributed to this report from Washington.