Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the United States and will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House, with European leaders saying they will be in Washington to support Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy will seek clarification on security guarantees, which so far remain vague but are crucial to his country's future.
On the eve of the meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy "can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight."
WASHINGTON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bolstered by the presence of key European allies, is set to meet President Donald Trump in a session that could help decide his embattled nation's future, even as Trump appeared to shift the burden to Zelenskyy to end the war with Russia.
"President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump wrote on Truth Social in a series of posts late on August 17, hours ahead of the scheduled White House meeting.
Trump, who has attempted to mediate an end to the conflict, also restated his belief that Ukraine would have to cede sovereign territory to Russia in any peace deal -- a notion regularly rejected by Kyiv and its European allies.
"Remember how it started. No getting back Obama-given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE," he added, referring to predecessor President Barack Obama and the fact that Russia seized and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Zelenskyy, who arrived in the United States at about 10:30 p.m., issued a statement saying he was grateful to Trump for the invitation and that "we all equally want to end this war swiftly and securely."
Zelenskyy referred to Ukraine's "forced" loss of Crimea but did not address Trump's remarks directly. "I hope that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia to real peace."
Earlier, Zelenskyy said one of the key items on his agenda is to secure solid security guarantees from the US leader against further Russian aggression, something US officials indicated was a real possibility after months of downplaying the potential.
Steve Witkoff, an envoy widely regarded as one of the key US negotiators with Moscow, suggested that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to provide “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine.
“We were able to win the following concession [from Putin]: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," Witkoff told CNN's “State of the Union” program.
“It was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that,” added Witkoff, calling it “game-changing.”
Zelenskyy -- who has long expressed desires to join NATO or to receive meaningful security guarantees from Washington and Europe's so-called "Coalition of the Willing" -- said he will seek more details on the issue at the meeting, scheduled to begin at 1:15 p.m. in Washington.
“There are no details how it will work, and what America’s role will be, Europe’s role will be, and what the EU can do — and this is our main task: We need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO,” he said, referring to the alliance's clause that states an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
"It is a historic decision that the United States is ready to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine," Zelenskyy said later on Telegram.
US officials have long rejected Kyiv's membership in NATO and have been reticent in the past to speak of direct security guarantees for Ukraine. Administration officials said any guarantees would be outside of NATO.
The meeting comes after Trump hosted Putin in an Alaska summit that appeared to yield little if any results but worried Kyiv and its allies over what critics perceived as a tilt by Trump back toward the Kremlin position on ending the conflict, which became an all-out war with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Most alarming to Ukraine and its supporters have been Trump’s remarks that Kyiv will have to cede territory to Russia in a "land swap."
Also concerning were Trump’s comments that an immediate cease-fire -- long advocated by Washington, Kyiv, and European leaders -- was no longer the desired next step.
Instead, Trump -- seemingly in line with Putin’s wishes -- said the sides should negotiate toward a full peace deal, which would likely take much longer and, critics say, buy Russia time to score further battlefield gains against the outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian defenders.
European leaders, many of whom held a video conference on August 17 to discuss the Ukraine war, said they will travel to Washington to support Zelenskyy during his meeting with Trump, although it was not immediately clear which sessions they would participate in.
"I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders at the White House tomorrow," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Following von der Leyen’s statement, a stream of European leaders, along with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, also announced plans to travel to Washington.
French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb are expected to join.
Eurasia Group said in a note that "European leaders have three key goals...to pin down more details on possible US security guarantees for Ukraine; to work on preparations for a possible trilateral meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Donald Trump, and to push back on the idea of land swaps.”
As the diplomatic activity picked up steam, the killing on the ground in Ukraine also continued.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram that three people were killed overnight and 17 people were injured in a Russian ballistic missile attack on the city in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Full details were not immediately available. [RFE/RL/NS]
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