Back from Alaska, Trump starts week with crucial foreign policy talks over Ukraine war
President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda is set to take center stage again this week, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting the White House on Monday as Washington continues efforts to broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv.
The upcoming meeting comes on the heels of Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday, where the U.S. leader shifted from demanding a ceasefire to calling for a final peace deal. Trump discussed some of the details of his meeting with Putin during a phone call with Zelenskyy from Air Force One.
The White House has yet to release details of the meeting but has acknowledged that key European allies will accompany Zelenskyy.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb all confirmed their plans to attend.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy acknowledged his last White House visit — cut short by a shouting match with both Trump and Vice President JD Vance — and told reporters in Brussels he hopes Monday’s meeting ‘will be productive’ rather than a repeat of February’s encounter.
Trump’s back-to-back meetings with both former Soviet republics could set the stage for a trilateral summit with the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy said that, so far, Russia has ‘given no sign that the trilateral will happen.’ The Ukrainian leader also said over the weekend that he would use his meetings in Washington to stress that Kyiv will reject any peace deal with Moscow that undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Trump signaled that Putin could agree to end the war if Zelenskyy ceded the entirety of the hotly-contested Donbas region to Russia.
The area, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, is an industrial hub where coal mining and steel production remain central to Ukraine’s economy. Control of Donbas’s mines and factories would hand Moscow powerful leverage over Kyiv’s post-war financial survival.
‘The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land,’ Zelenskyy said during a press conference at the EU Commission on Sunday.
‘Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral Ukraine, United States, Russia,’ Zelenskyy said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed reports that Trump supports Russia’s conditions for peace.
‘The president has said that in terms of territories, these are things that Zelenskyy is going to have to decide on,’ Rubio told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’
‘All the president is trying to do here is narrow down the open issues,’ Rubio said, adding that Trump remains focused on ending the Kremlin’s three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.
