European Leaders To Join Zelenskyy In Talks With Trump

By Mykyta Peretiatko

Key Points:

European leaders are set to join Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s planned meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss steps toward ending the war in Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv continue to exchange air strikes.

As Ukraine pushes for Europe to take part in negotiations over a settlement of the conflict, European leaders will accompany Zelenskyy to Washington on August 18.

"At the request of President Zelenskyy, 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, have also announced their plans to participate.

French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, all of whom visited the United States earlier this year, are expected to join.

See Also: Trump–Putin Summit in Alaska Ends Without Ceasefire Agreement

In her post on X, von der Leyen added that she will welcome Zelenskyy in Brussels on August 17 to jointly participate in a call with the leaders of Ukraine’s European backers -- the meeting, which seems set to shape Europe’s position for the talks with Washington on Monday.

"It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America," Zelenskyy wrote in an X post on August 16, following the US-Russia talks in Alaska.

The Alaska summit, held on August 15, was the highest level diplomacy between Washington and Moscow since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. However, it appeared to bring no major shift in President Vladimir Putin’s war aims in Ukraine.

According to unnamed sources quoted by multiple news organizations, Putin told Trump he could agree to freezing the front lines in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions if Ukraine fully withdraws from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Russia claims to have annexed all four regions. It controls most of the Luhansk region and about 70 percent of the Donetsk region, and partially controls Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.

In a social media post, Trump said after the Alaska meeting that it "was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement."

Ukraine and European allies, as well as the United States, have long called for a cease-fire to be implemented as a step towards a comprehensive peace deal.

According to an unnamed former Kremlin official quoted by the Financial Times, Putin restated his demands relating to what he calls the "root causes" of the conflict. These include an end to Ukraine's NATO membership bid and a scaling-back of NATO's military presence on its eastern flank.

Despite what may be the most significant diplomatic efforts since February 2022, Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange air strikes.

At least five people were killed and four others injured by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region, according to Vadym Filashkin, head of the local military administration.

"Over the past day, Russian forces fired 38 times at settlements in the Donetsk region," he said in a Telegram post on August 17.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged a power line at a station in the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, regional governor Aleksander Gusev said. According to him, a railway employee was injured as a result of the attack. [RFE/RL/VP]

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