BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON — European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington on Monday for high-stakes talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, as Western allies weigh how to end Russia’s invasion amid sharp divisions over potential territorial concessions.
The meeting follows Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, which failed to produce the ceasefire that Washington had been pushing. Instead, Trump declared that he was now pursuing a broader peace deal, a shift that aligns more closely with Moscow’s stance than with Kyiv’s.
On Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “Big progress on Russia, stay tuned!” without elaborating. His envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, told CNN that Trump and Putin had agreed in principle on providing Ukraine with “robust security guarantees” — a proposal hailed by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen but flatly rejected by Zelensky.
“What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin’s thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees,” Zelensky said in Brussels, where he appeared with von der Leyen. Later, he described the U.S. offer as “historic” in a social media post.
Von der Leyen welcomed the idea of U.S. guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, while stressing that the European Union stood ready to “do its share.” French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, said leaders would press Washington in Monday’s talks to clarify the scope of its commitments.
The “coalition of the willing” heading to Washington includes Macron, von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. The group held a preparatory video call Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in a separate interview with NBC that Russia would face “consequences,” including possible new sanctions, if it spurned peace efforts.
Yet many European leaders remain uneasy about Trump’s outreach to Putin. According to an official briefed on Trump’s calls with Zelensky and European leaders during his flight back from Alaska, the U.S. president voiced support for a Kremlin proposal under which Russia would assume full control of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, while halting offensives in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
“Putin de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas,” the official said, referring to the two eastern regions that Russia only partly controls but claimed to annex in 2022.
Zelensky has repeatedly rejected ceding territory, and on Sunday insisted that Moscow showed “no sign” of being willing to meet him and Trump in a three-way summit.
As leaders prepare for Monday’s talks, the fighting continues unabated: both Ukraine and Russia launched drone strikes against each other overnight, underscoring the widening gulf between battlefield realities and diplomatic maneuvering.
