LONDON: European leaders including from Germany, France and Britain will join Volodymyr Zelensky to meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, they said while seeking to shore up his position as the US pressed Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal.

Trump is leaning on Zelensky to strike an agreement after he met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and on Sunday promised “big progress on Russia” in a social media post without specifying what this might be.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a meeting of allies on Sunday to bolster Zelensky’s position, hoping in particular to lock down robust security guarantees for Ukraine that would include a US role.

Polish foreign minister said he had stressed during the discussion that pressure must be applied on Russia, not Ukraine. “The Western Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine meeting concluded ahead of tomorrow’s talks in Washington,” Radoslaw Sikorski wro­te on X. “I emphasised that for peace to come, pressure must be placed on the aggressor, not the victim.”

Rubio says both sides need to make concessions to end war

European allies are keen to help Zelensky avoid a repeat of his last Oval Office meeting, in February. That went disastrously, with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance giving the Ukrainian leader a public dressing-down, accusing him of being ‘ungrateful’ and ‘disrespectful’.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also travel to Washington, as will Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, whose access to Trump included rounds of golf in Florida earlier this year, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is an admirer of many of Trump’s policies.

“It’s important that Washington is with us,” Zelensky said alongside von der Leyen on a visit to Brussels, saying that the current front lines in the war should be the basis for peace talks.

“Putin does not want to stop the killing but he must do it.”

Steel Porcupine

Setting out red lines, von der Leyen said Ukraine’s allies wanted robust security guarantees for Ukraine, no limits to Ukraine’s armed forces and a seat at the table for Ukraine to discuss its territory.

“As I have often said, Ukraine must become a steel porcupine, indigestible for potential invaders,” she said.

European powers want security guarantees for Ukraine with US involvement, and the ability to crank up pressure on Moscow if needed.

Speaking to CBS on Sunday, Rubio said both Ukraine and Russia would have to make concessions to reach a peace deal and that security guarantees for Ukraine would be discussed on Monday. He also said there would have to be additional consequences for Russia if no deal was reached.

“I’m not saying we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this,” Rubio said.

However, he said the US may not be able to create a scenario to end the war.

“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands ... we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said in an interview with “Face the Nation.”

Very big power

For his part, Putin briefed his close ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, about the Alaska talks, and also spoke with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Trump said on Friday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.

After the Alaska summit, Trump phoned Zelensky and told him that the Kremlin chief had offered to freeze most front lines if Ukraine ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets, a source familiar with the matter said.

Zelensky rejected the demand. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.

Trump also said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies have called for. That was a reversal of his position before the summit, when he said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025