KYIV — European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he meets with President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. on Monday, presenting a united front to help Zelensky navigate what Ukrainians anticipate could be a high-stakes and potentially emotional meeting on which Ukraine’s future could hinge.
European leaders to join Trump-Zelensky meeting, presenting united front
Zelensky’s meeting with Trump comes after Trump met with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and told allies that Putin wanted Ukraine’s Donbas as a condition to end the war.
Updated
August 17, 2025
Zelensky is also traveling to Brussels on Sunday to meet with the “coalition of the willing,” a group formed by Kyiv’s allies ready to deploy troops to back Ukraine.
Zelensky is also traveling to Brussels on Sunday and will meet virtually with the “coalition of the willing,” a group of European allies planning to back any future settlement of the war, including with troops.
The Trump-Zelensky meeting comes after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday, dropped his demand for a ceasefire, called for a final peace deal and told allies that Putin wanted Ukraine’s eastern Donbas as a condition for ending the war.
President
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached no agreement
to end the war in Ukraine on Aug. 15. The Post's Michael Birnbaum
explains. (Video: Julie Yoon, Cat Zakrzewski, Michael Birnbaum/The
Washington Post)
Zelensky and his European backers have long called for a ceasefire instead of a final settlement, with European allies saying that Ukraine cannot negotiate under attack and are wary of a rushed deal.
Zelensky will tread a fine line on Monday, Ukrainian political figures said, having to take care not to anger Trump while at the same time convincing him that his recent proposals for an end to the Ukraine-Russia war are unworkable.
Foremost in Ukrainians’ minds is avoiding a repetition of a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office in February among Zelensky, Trump and vice president JD Vance that dissolved into a shouting match and gravely damaged Kyiv’s position among its American allies.
“Unfortunately, there is such risk indeed” of a repeat of the scene earlier this year in the Oval Office, said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at the government-linked Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies. “It seems that Putin managed to build a case in Trump’s mind in Alaska that it’s Ukraine that should make major concessions for peace.”
Zelensky needs to “strike a balance between being non-provocative in his defense of Ukraine national interests but still mindful of promoting those interests,” Bielieskov said.
The support of European leaders in Washington is key, said Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“Trump now can do something only under colossal moral and political pressure from Western Europe,” Merezhko said in an interview before the European leaders announced plans to join the Monday meeting. “Otherwise, he will lean towards Putin’s side and support him.”
Ellen Francis in Brussels contributed to this report.