European leaders to join Zelenskyy in US for Ukraine talks with Trump

BRUSSELS: European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Washington on Monday seeking an end to Moscow’s invasion, after President Donald Trump dropped his push for a ceasefire following an Alaska summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

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

But after the meeting yielded no breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine — a move that would appear to favour Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.

Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin’s stance as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances.

The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to try and bend Trump’s ear on the matter include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Ahead of the visit, von der Leyen said on X she would welcome Zelenskyy for a meeting in Brussels on Sunday which other European leaders would join by video, before accompanying the Ukrainian leader on his US trip at his “request” and with “other European leaders”.

The German government, which confirmed Merz was going, said it would try to emphasise “interest in a swift peace agreement in Ukraine”.

Trump had briefed Zelenskyy and European leaders on his flight back from Alaska to Washington, saying afterwards 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”.

Ceasefire agreements “often times do not hold up,” Trump argued on his Truth Social platform.

But Zelenskyy has appeared unconvinced by the change of tack, saying on Saturday that it “complicates the situation”.

If Moscow lacks “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 (something) far greater — peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades,” he said on social media.

European leaders for their part have expressed unease over Trump’s outreach to Putin from the outset.