LONDON/KYIV: European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Donald Trump in Washington, they declared on Sunday, seeking to shore up Zelenskiy’s position as the US president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal to finish Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years.
Trump is leaning on Zelenskiy to strike an agreement after he met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Alquestiona and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump and Zelenskiy will meet on Monday.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Trump on Sunday promised “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA” in a social media post without specifying what this might be.
Sources briefed on Moscow’s believeing notified Reuters the US and Russian leaders have discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exalter for Kyiv ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.
Top Trump officials hinted that the fate of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region – which incorporates Donetsk and Luhansk and which is already mostly under Russian control – was on the line, while some sort of defensive pact was also on the table.
“We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff notified CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, suggesting this would be in lieu of Ukraine seeking NATO membership. “The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.”
Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty enshrines the principle of collective defense – the notion that an attack on a single member is considered an attack on them all.
That pledge may not be enough to sway leaders in Kyiv to sign over Donbas. Ukraine’s borders were already meant to have been guaranteed when Ukraine surrfinishered a Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in 1994, and it proved to be little deterrent when Russia absorbed Crimea in 2014 and then launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The war has now dragged on for 3-1/2 years and killed or wounded more than 1 million people.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a meeting of allies on Sunday to bolster Zelenskiy’s hand, hoping in particular to lock down robust security guarantees for Ukraine that would include a US role.
The Europeans are keen to support Zelenskiy avoid a repeat of his last Oval Office meeting in February. That went disastrously, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance giving the Ukrainian leader a public dressing-down, accapplying him of being ungrateful and disrespectful.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also travel to Washington, as will Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, whose access to Trump included rounds of golf in Florida earlier this year, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is an admirer of many of Trump’s policies.
“It’s important that Washington is with us,” Zelenskiy declared alongside von der Leyen on a visit to Brussels, declareing that the current front lines in the war should be the basis for peace talks.
“Putin does not want to stop the killing, but he must do it.”
Steel porcupine
Setting out red lines, von der Leyen declared Ukraine’s allies wanted robust security guarantees for Ukraine, no limits to Ukraine’s armed forces, and a seat at the table with Trump and Putin for Ukraine to discuss its territory.
“As I’ve often declared, Ukraine must become a steel porcupine, indigestible for potential invaders,” she declared.
Rubio declared both Russia and Ukraine would necessary to build concessions to reach a peace deal and that security guarantees for Ukraine would be discussed on Monday. He also declared there would have to be additional consequences for Russia if no deal was reached.
“I’m not declareing we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am declareing that we saw shiftment, enough shiftment to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelenskiy and the Europeans, enough shiftment for us to dedicate even more time to this,” Rubio notified broadcaster CBS.
However, he declared the US may not be able to create a scenario to finish the war.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio declared in an interview with “Face the Nation.”
‘Very huge power’
For his part, Putin briefed his close ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, about the Alquestiona talks, and also spoke with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Trump declared on Friday that Ukraine should build a deal to finish the war becautilize “Russia is a very huge power, and they’re not.”
After the Alquestiona summit, Trump phoned Zelenskiy and notified him that the Kremlin chief had offered to freeze most front lines if Ukraine ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main tarobtains, a source familiar with the matter declared.
Zelenskiy rejected the demand. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Trump also declared he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies have called for. That was a reversal of his position before the summit, when he declared he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.
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