European leaders have said they will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
It comes after Trump failed to reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
The US president has since said he wants to bypass securing a ceasefire in Ukraine in favour of a permanent peace agreement.
Those travelling to Washington include Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine had been one of Trump’s core demands before meeting Putin, but he afterwards posted on social media that they “often times do not hold up” and that it would be better “to go directly to a peace agreement”.
European leaders have reacted with caution to the outcome of the Trump-Putin meeting, seeking not to criticise the change of direction despite their long-held support for a ceasefire.
Putin reportedly presented Trump with a peace offer that would require Ukraine withdrawing from the Donetsk region of the Donbas, in return for Russia freezing the front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russia claims the Donbas as Russian territory, controlling most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk. It also illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president has previously ruled out ceding control of the Donbas – composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – saying it could be used as a springboard for future Russian attacks.
On Sunday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin had agreed in Alaska that the US would provide Ukraine with “robust security guarantees that I would describe as game changing”.
Witkoff told CNN that talks in Alaska “got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee”.
Nato’s Article 5 states that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
Putin opposes Ukraine joining Nato, and Witkoff said this arrangement could be an alternative if “the Ukrainians could live with that”.
Witkoff also said Russia had “made some concessions at the table” about territory.
He added that the Donetsk region constitutes an “important discussion” – one which he says will happen tomorrow.
The BBC’s US partner CBS cited diplomatic sources as saying that European officials were concerned Trump may try to press Zelensky to agree to the terms discussed with Russia in Alaska. (BBC News)
