European leaders to join Zelenskyy at White House meeting, von der Leyen says
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has just confirmed in a post on X that she will be meeting Donald Trump along with other European leaders in the White House on Monday at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
She also said that she will welcome Zelenskyy in Brussels later today and together will participate in a meeting of European leaders part of the “coalition of the willing”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will also go to Washington DC with Zelesnkyy tomorrow.
The coalition of the willing, set up by the UK and France as the Trump administration threatened to withdraw security support for Europe, is made up of more than 30 countries working together to support Ukraine.
Its aim is to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a deal being reached between Kyiv and Moscow, with several countries, including France and the UK, having pledged to send troops on the ground to enforce a potential agreement.
Key events
Italian prime minister due to travel to Washington on Monday
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is also due to travel to Washington tomorrow, her office has said.
Meloni, who has been labelled as “Europe’s Trump whisperer” and has spent time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home, was the only European leader invited to his inauguration in January.
Trump has described the Italian prime minister, a supporter of Ukraine, as “a wonderful person”.
German chancellor, French president and Finnish president to go to Washington
Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, will also be travelling to Washington tomorrow for the Trump-Zelenskyy talks, according to the federal government.
The chancellor’s spokesperson has been quoted by BBC News as having said:
The trip will serve as an exchange of information with US President Donald Trump following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Chancellor Merz will discuss the status of peace efforts with the heads of state and government 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 defence against Russian aggression. This includes maintaining the pressure of sanctions.
Speaking to the German public broadcaster ZDF yesterday after being briefed together with other European leaders by Trump on his talks with Putin, Merz said the US was ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, without spelling out exactly what this would entail.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will also go to Washington with Zelesnkyy on Monday.
In a statement, the French presidency office says the leaders will pursue “coordination between the Europeans and the United States with the goal of coming to a just and lasting peace that preserves the vital interests of Ukraine and the security of Europe.”
The coalition of the willing video conference call is expected to be led by the UK and France and take place at about 14:00 BST.
European leaders to join Zelenskyy at White House meeting, von der Leyen says
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has just confirmed in a post on X that she will be meeting Donald Trump along with other European leaders in the White House on Monday at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
She also said that she will welcome Zelenskyy in Brussels later today and together will participate in a meeting of European leaders part of the “coalition of the willing”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will also go to Washington DC with Zelesnkyy tomorrow.
The coalition of the willing, set up by the UK and France as the Trump administration threatened to withdraw security support for Europe, is made up of more than 30 countries working together to support Ukraine.
Its aim is to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a deal being reached between Kyiv and Moscow, with several countries, including France and the UK, having pledged to send troops on the ground to enforce a potential agreement.
Who might accompany Zelenskyy on his Washington trip?
European officials will decide this weekend whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be accompanied on the visit to Washington tomorrow.
They are keen to avoid the chaotic scenes played out in front of the world’s press in the White House in February, when Donald Trump got into a shouting match with the Ukrainian leader, telling him to make a deal with Russia “or we’re out” and warning that Zelenskyy was “gambling with world war three”.
Zelenskyy left the White House early after Trump gave him a dressing-down that followed an ambush led by vice-president JD Vance, a skeptic of US support for Ukraine.
Politico is reporting that, in order to prevent another potential flare up and to try to ensure greater European involvement in negotiations, Finnish President Alexander Stubb – and possibly Nato secretary general Mark Rutte – may accompany Zelenskyy for his Washington trip tomorrow.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen may also join, according to Bloomberg, but these plans are not finalised. All three senior European figures have a seemingly good relationship with the US president.
Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that Russian forces had destroyed and intercepted 300 Ukrainian drones and struck storage sites for Sapsan operational-tactical missiles, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia’s defence ministry said Russian forces had gained better positions near the settlement of Zolotyi Kolodiaz in the Donetsk region, though pro-Ukrainian maps showed that Ukrainian forces had contained the Russian advance, Reuters reports.
The defence ministry said war planes, drones and missiles had been used to strike Ukrainian storage sites for Sapsan missiles across the country.
“Four guided aerial bombs and 300 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by air defense systems,” the ministry was quoted as having said.
Russia ‘complicating’ efforts to end to war, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia is complicating efforts to end the war.
In a post on X, he wrote:
We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation.
If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, 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.
But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war. Today, coordination with partners has been ongoing throughout the day …
We are preparing for Monday’s meeting with President Trump, and I am grateful for the invitation.
It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work.
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2km (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 sq km in the region, according to Ukraine’s battlefield mapping project DeepState.
US President Donald Trump said after Friday’s meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that he wants to bypass a ceasefire and move straight to a permanent peace deal.
This is a major shift in policy. Before the summit, Trump demanded Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire or face heavy US sanctions on oil exports.
Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks.
After calls with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump wrote on social media on Saturday 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.”
With Russia and Ukraine far apart in their demands, it is not clear how easily that could be achieved.
We are likely to be issued with a joint statement from the leaders of the “coalition of the willing” on the call later – it is not clear if they will use the word ceasefire or adopt more vague language to align themselves more with the new American position.
Trump reportedly to back ceding of Ukrainian territory to Russia as part of peace deal
Here is some more detail from the report from my colleagues Edward Helmore and Pjotr Sauer about Trump backing a plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, with Putin demanding Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for peace:
Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives.
Putin told Trump that in exchange for Donetsk and Luhansk, he would halt further advances and freeze the frontline in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces occupy significant areas.
Trump’s support for ceding Ukraine’s Donbas region (composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions), which is rich in mineral resources, including coal and iron ore, to Russia comes as he voiced support for moving straight to a peace deal and not via a ceasefire, which, Trump said in a social media post on Saturday, “often times do not hold up.”
US support for ceding the Donbas to Russia represents a breach with Ukraine and European allies that oppose such a deal.
As part of a deal, the US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Saturday. Trump has threatened economic penalties on countries that buy Russian oil if Moscow refuses a deal and flew US bombers over the Russian leader as he arrived in Alaska.
But Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks.
European leaders from ‘coalition of the willing’ to hold conference call ahead of Zelenskyy’s talks with Trump
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
While Washington prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelenskyy for crunch talks with Donald Trump on Monday, European leaders who make up the so-called “coalition of the willing”, a loose partnership of western countries pledging support for Ukraine, are set to hold a conference call on Sunday to try to protect a peace deal that does not reward Russia for its aggression.
The virtual call is being co-chaired by the UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
At the Alaska summit on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told the Guardian.
Trump reportedly backed the plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, telling European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if Zelenskyy agreed to give up the Donbas region (which is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk).
European leaders have repeatedly said that Zelenskyy, who has been sidelined in much of the US-Russian diplomacy to date, must play a greater role in future talks as a lasting peace cannot be achieved without his input.
In a statement released on Saturday after the Alaska talks between Trump and Putin ended without any breakthrough, Starmer said in a statement posted to X:
President Trump’s efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. His leadership in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended.
While progress has been made, the next steps must be further talks involving President Zelenskyy. The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without him.
Stay with us as we will be keeping you up to date with the latest political and military developments throughout the day.
