European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump about ending Russia's war in Ukraine. They are rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The remarkable show of solidarity — with leaders from France, the United Kingdom and Germany saying they would be at Zelensky's side at the White House on Monday — was an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelensky in a heated Oval Office encounter.
The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska
(Video: Reuters)
"The Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated, and so they want to support Mr. Zelensky to the hilt," said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France's military mission at the United Nations.
"It's a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump," he said.
The European leaders' physical presence to demonstrate their support for Ukraine could potentially help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia.
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(Photo: Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images Michael Kappeler/ AFP Mandel Ngan, Maxim Shemetov/ Ludovic Marin)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on X that she will take part in the talks, "at the request" of Zelensky. The secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte, will also take part in the meeting, his press service said.
The office of President Emmanuel Macron said the French leader will travel "at the side of President Zelensky" and that he, too, would visit the White House. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also take part in the meeting with Trump, according to a statement from 10 Downing Street.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also be part of the European group. Writing on X, he said he would discuss security guarantees, territorial issues, and further support for Ukraine.
The group trip underscored European leaders' determination to ensure that Europe has a voice in Trump's attempted peace-making, after the U.S. president's summit on Friday with Putin, to which Zelensky wasn't invited.
Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said European leaders are trying to "shape this fast-evolving agenda." After the Alaska summit, the idea of a ceasefire appears all but abandonedwith the narrative shifting towards Putin's agenda of ensuring Ukraine does not join NATO or even the EU.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that a possible ceasefire is "not off the table" but that the best way to end the war would be through a "full peace deal."
Putin has implied that he sees Europe as a hindrance to negotiations. He has also resisted meeting Zelensky in person, saying that such a meeting can only take place once the groundwork for a peace deal has been laid.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, the Russian leader raised the idea that Kyiv and other European capitals could "create obstacles" to derail potential progress with "behind-the-scenes intrigue."
For now, Zelensky offers the Europeans the "only way" to get into the discussions about the future of Ukraine and European security, says RUSI's Melvin.
However, the sheer number of European leaders potentially in attendance means the group will have to be "mindful" not to give "contradictory" messages, Melvin said.
"The risk is they look heavy-handed and are ganging up on Trump," he added. "Trump won't want to be put in a corner."