U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukraine to give up hopes of getting back annexed Crimea or joining NATO as he prepared to host President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington on Monday afternoon.
After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, comments made by Trump on social media on Sunday night suggested he would press Zelenskyy hard at Monday’s meeting to end Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years.Â
Zelenskyy “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama-given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE.”Â
Crimea, recognized by most countries as Ukraine territory since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, was annexed by Russia in 2014, during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Meanwhile, the war that has killed tens of thousands rages on, as Russia launched missiles and drones in overnight attacks which killed seven people in Kharkiv, including two children, officials said. Â
“They hit an ordinary apartment block; many flats, many families were living here, small children, children’s playground, residential compound. There are no offices here or anything else, we lived here peacefully in our homes,” said Olena Yakusheva, a local resident, as firefighters battled a blaze in the building and rescue workers dug in the rubble.
On the battlefield, Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower.
‘The whole world is looking’
The White House said Trump will first meet Zelenskyy at 1:15 p.m. ET, and then about two hours later, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO, who are flying to Washington to show solidarity with Ukraine and to press for strong security guarantees in any post-war settlement. Â
Ukraine and its allies have long feared that Trump could press an agreement favourable to Moscow. However, they have taken heart from some developments, including Trump’s apparent willingness to provide post-settlement security guarantees for Ukraine.
European leaders held a call with Zelenskyy on Sunday to align on a common strategy for the meetings with Trump.
“It is probably not an exaggeration to say the whole world is looking to Washington,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said at a news briefing.
In a Fox News interview not long after the Putin summit, Trump said that the “European nations … have to get involved a little bit.”
However, Zelenskyy has already all but rejected the outline of Putin’s proposals from the Alaska meeting, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region, of which it currently controls one-quarter. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into Donetsk, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy is also seeking an immediate ceasefire to conduct deeper peace talks. Trump previously backed that, but reversed course after the summit with Putin and indicated support for Russia’s favoured approach of negotiating a comprehensive deal while fighting rumbles on.
The Ukrainian president said after arriving in Washington late on Sunday he was grateful to Trump for the invitation.
“We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. “Russia must end this war — the war it started. And I hope that our shared strength with America and with our European friends will compel Russia to real peace.”
Rocky U.S.-Ukraine relationship
Ukraine’s pressing need for U.S. weapons and intelligence sharing, some of which have no viable alternative, has forced Zelenskyy and his allies to work with Trump. Â
Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House in January. Zelenskyy is seeking to avoid a repeat of the ill-tempered, abbreviated meeting in Washington held in February, where he was berated by Trump, JD Vance and a reporter from a right-wing American cable network.
Two weeks earlier, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to undercut leverage Kyiv might hold in future talks, saying it was unrealistic for Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders and that NATO membership for Ukraine would not be part of a peace deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump said there’s a very good chance of ‘getting there’ on a deal to end the war in Ukraine after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin also floated the idea of Trump going to Moscow for a follow-up meeting.
Trump railed on the 2024 campaign trail about the amount of military aid predecessor Joe Biden’s administration was providing Ukraine, even as much of the spending was benefiting American military contractors. The Trump administration committed no new Ukraine funding in its recent budget bill, instead brokering a deal for European countries to purchase U.S.-made weapons.
During his first presidential term, Trump was impeached in 2019 by the House of Representatives after it was revealed he tried to enlist Zelenskyy, then in his first weeks as Ukraine president, into a scheme that would smear Biden. Trump was acquitted by the Senate, but during the impeachment process continued to allege that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to help Democrat Hillary Clinton win, which has been dismissed by intelligence experts as a conspiracy theory.
