Leaders from major European allies, NATO and the European Union are traveling to Washington, D.C., to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Monday meeting with President Donald Trump—setting up what appear to be crucial talks as Trump pushes for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine that has been raging since the Russian invasion in 2022.
Leaders from the EU and NATO will join the Ukrainian president at the White House.
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Key Takeaways
- Zelenskyy will travel to meet with Trump at the White House on Monday.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will reportedly take part in the talks, as well as leaders of individual allied nations including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
- The meeting comes days after Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska—a conference that yielded no concrete peace or ceasefire deal, but made what Trump called “great progress.”
What Will Trump Speak To Zelenskyy About?
Trump administration officials have provided few details about what concessions the Russians may have offered at the negotiations in Alaska on Friday, but speaking to CNN on Sunday morning, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff described the Trump-Putin meeting as “game-changing.” Witkoff said the Trump administration would likely discuss Ukraine exchanging territory with Russia, what he called a “fundamental issue” for the Russians, but the administration would not make any decisions for Ukraine when it came to territory. “We intend to discuss it on Monday,” Witkoff told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The special envoy did not offer concrete details on what concessions the Russians may have offered in terms of territory, but added “that discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday, when President Zelenskyy arrives with his delegation and some of the other European leaders,” Witkoff said. “And, hopefully, we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there on that.” Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian territory Crimea in 2014, and three years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia controls the majority of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The Trump administration said the Russians may support Ukraine signing a future security deal with the U.S. and European allies—but even with the security guarantees, convincing the Ukrainians to cede territory could prove difficult for the Trump administration. Zelenskyy has consistently rejected peace offers that include territorial exchanges in the past, and reiterated this sentiment in a statement posted on social media Sunday, shortly after meeting with European leaders in Brussels. “There is clear support for Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty,” the Ukrainian president said. “Everyone agrees that borders must not be changed by force.”
What Is Article 5?
The Trump administration says that Russian negotiators indicated they would agree to allow Ukraine to sign a future security agreement with the U.S. and European allies—one that would offer similar protections like those outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, the document that forms the basis of NATO. Article 5 guarantees that if one NATO member is attacked, it is considered an attack on all member states, and all member states are compelled to take necessary action to “restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” Witkoff told Tapper the administration got the Russians to agree to allow the U.S. and European nations to “effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee.” However, he was adamant that this would not amount to Ukraine actually joining NATO—something he said the Russians still viewed as a “red flag.” The special envoy did not elaborate on the details of the guarantee.
Why Are European Leaders Joining The Meeting?
European leaders are trying to avoid a repeat of the tense press public meeting Zelenskyy held with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February, Reuters and other outlets reported Sunday. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected this notion while speaking to CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday morning. “We’ve been working with these people for weeks,” Rubio said. “They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come.” Rubio said the Trump administration was focused on hammering out a peace deal. “Look, our goal here is not to stage some production for the world to say, oh how dramatic he walked out,” he said. “Our goal here is to have a peace agreement to end this war.”
