₦airaland Forum

European Leaders to Join Zelensky for Meeting With Trump

European leaders said on Sunday that they would join President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine when he meets with President Trump on Monday at the White House, as they strive to show solidarity against Russia and avoid being sidelined in peace talks.

“Our goal tomorrow is to present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians,” President Emmanuel Macron of France told reporters. “I don’t believe Putin wants peace. I believe he wants Ukraine’s capitulation.”

Mr. Macron will be one of at least six European leaders — including Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and President Alexander Stubb of Finland, two of Mr. Trump’s favored counterparts — traveling to Washington. The trip highlights the continent’s effort to smooth relations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky, whose last White House meeting in February descended into a public clash.

European leaders have spent months cultivating ties with Mr. Trump to strengthen their hand in pressing Ukraine’s case, while also coaching Mr. Zelensky on how to better engage with Mr. Trump. On Sunday, the Europeans and other partners met online and in person with Mr. Zelensky to prepare for the meeting in Washington.

“We’ll give a few good pieces of advice,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany told the German television broadcaster ZDF ahead of the meeting. He will also join the Washington meeting, along with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy; NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte; and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm.

Mr. Trump will first meet with Mr. Zelensky. They are then scheduled to join a working lunch and a larger meeting with the other European leaders, according to European officials familiar with the preparations for the day.

The meeting will come three days after talks in Alaska between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ended inconclusively but fueled concerns in Europe that Mr. Trump’s thinking may have tilted toward Russia’s position.

After their summit, Mr. Trump sided with the Russian president in calling for a direct peace agreement that would quite likely see Ukraine cede unconquered territory to Russia, rather than securing a cease-fire first. Negotiations instead of an immediate cease-fire would give Russia time to exploit its battlefield advantage to seize territory before any front lines are settled.

Mr. Trump claimed that Mr. Zelensky and European leaders had agreed on the point. But the group had instead called for refusing to discuss peace terms until a cease-fire was in place.

Russia has long pushed for a direct peace deal that would address a range of issues and impose onerous demands on Ukraine, including territorial concessions. Mr. Trump’s about-face sent Ukrainian and European officials scrambling to coordinate their positions before pressing their case together to him.

They seemed careful not to antagonize Mr. Trump, issuing statements that did not ask him to reverse course, but also did not echo his claim that peace talks were preferable to a cease-fire.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels on Sunday, Ms. von der Leyen said the term cease-fire was not “so important” and that what mattered was to end the fighting. “Whether we call it a cease-fire or it’s a peace deal — stop the killings.”

Alongside her, Mr. Zelensky said he agreed on the terminology. But he added that it was “impossible” to negotiate “under the pressure of weapons,” or if hostilities continued during pursuit of a direct peace deal.

“So it’s necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding that negotiations should be based on the current front lines.

After the news conference, Mr. Zelensky joined a virtual meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, a group of European countries prepared to help safeguard an eventual peace, including, in some cases, by sending troops to Ukrainian soil after the conflict ends.

After the meeting, Mr. Macron, who took part in it, said European leaders would ask Mr. Trump how far he would go in backing security guarantees for Ukraine.

Such troop deployments could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine that Mr. Trump called for as part of a peace deal. On Sunday, Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state and acting national security adviser, said on Fox News that European leaders involved in talks with Ukraine would play an important role in discussions of long-term security guarantees intended to deter future Russian incursions.

Obtaining robust security guarantees for Ukraine is in Europe’s interest. Several European leaders have warned that if Mr. Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, he could ultimately try to take European territory by force.

Oleksandr Kraiev, the director of the North America program at the Kyiv research group Ukrainian Prism, said in an interview this past week that for Europe “the idea is to present Ukrainian security and defense issues as a European security and defense issue.”

Mr. Macron echoed that thinking on Sunday, saying he and other European leaders were not heading to Washington “just to accompany President Zelensky.”

“We are going there to defend the interests of the Europeans,” he said.

Lanretoye:
They know that zenlensky is a mumu man,seeing trump before him makes him already fidgeting.

naptu2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDr7JHcZD4?si=QYSTHLgtT-nzsFbw



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/us/politics/trump-european-leaders-zelensky-meeting.html

Photo: Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Voloydmyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain at Mariyinsky Palace, in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May.Credit...

Bigchris01:
Russia is hellbent on annexing the remaining part of Ukraine until they surrender and any further sanctions and confrontation will lead to WWIII, that’s the calculation,

ElSudani:
Zelensky if by far a stronger and more intelligent leader than Trump. Imagine Ukraine being as powerful as the US.

Immatex:
To avoid and prevent bullying and ambushing.

Trump - Biblical King of the South simply wants to avoid the inevitable confrontation with Russia - King of North.

Russia will not accept anything less than a surrender of lands, so what next if Ukraine refuses too?

Thundafireseun:
This senseless war wouldn’t have happened if that comedian wasn’t the president…

You don’t give a man’s Job to a boy and expect the same result

Elzazzi:
So NATO and European countries no join Ukraine for the fight ? Lol

Thundafireseun:
This senseless war wouldn’t have happened if that comedian wasn’t the president…

You don’t give a man’s Job to a boy and expect the same result

ElSudani:
His country was invaded, he wasn't the aggressor here.
Russia took Crimea and then came back for more. But it was Zelensky's fault?

Thundafireseun:
How can a comedian become an aggressor??

Just imagine Sabinus or Broda shaggy or crazy clown president of any country in the world…. Nobody would take that country seriously

TemplarLandry:
Thanks to the E.U for being great allies.
In Emmanuel Macron's words "if we don't stand against Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflicts."

I diss Putin the aggressor with "Friendly Fire" by Skepta (Big Smoke).

Great jam!