European leaders are set to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington on Monday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned his push for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine following a high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Securing a ceasefire had been one of Trump’s central demands heading into the talks. However, with Ukraine and its European allies excluded from the summit and no breakthrough achieved, Trump shifted his stance, arguing that ceasefires “often do not hold up” and instead calling for direct negotiations on a final peace settlement.
The shift drew sharp criticism from Kyiv and its allies, who see Putin’s insistence on bypassing a ceasefire as a tactic to prolong the war and consolidate Russia’s battlefield gains. Zelensky warned that the move “complicates the situation,” stressing that if Moscow refuses even to halt its strikes, achieving lasting peaceful coexistence will be far more difficult.
A high-level European delegation is now heading to Washington to press Trump on the issue. Attendees include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who hosted Zelensky in Brussels over the weekend. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, both of whom maintain good ties with Trump, are also expected at the White House.
According to a source briefed on the talks, Trump voiced support for Putin’s proposal that Ukraine relinquish the Donetsk and Luhansk regions—known collectively as the Donbas—in exchange for a freeze in fighting along the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia frontlines. Zelensky firmly rejected the plan, which would effectively cement Russian control over swathes of Ukrainian territory.
Russia claimed to annex all four of these regions in 2022, despite not fully controlling any of them.
Trump nonetheless assured allies that the U.S. was prepared to offer Ukraine security guarantees, which Chancellor Merz described as “significant progress.” But others voiced alarm. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned Putin’s strategy as an attempt to “drag out negotiations,” warning that “the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon.”
