European leaders, Zelensky to meet Trump in Washington

Brussels, Aug 18 (IANS) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that she and other European leaders, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, will travel to Washington on Monday for talks with US President Donald Trump.

"At the request of President Zelensky, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow," von der Leyen wrote on Sunday on social media platform X.

The German government announced on Sunday that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington on Monday, joining other European leaders and Zelensky for talks with Trump, Xinhua news agency reported.

Merz is expected to discuss the current state of peace efforts, a statement said, adding that security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine will be addressed.

The French presidency told the press on Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Washington on Monday together with Zelensky and other European leaders to advance coordination between Europe and the US.

ANSA news agency reported that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be in Washington on Monday to attend a meeting with Trump at the White House, together with Zelensky and other European leaders.

Other leaders also making the trip include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland are rallying around the Ukrainian President after his exclusion from Trump's summit on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Their pledge to be at Zelensky's side at the White House on Monday is an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelensky in a heated Oval Office encounter.

Putin agreed at his summit in Alaska with Trump that the US and its European allies could offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war, special US envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.

Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin's stance as a way to buy time and press Russia's battlefield advances, and they have expressed unease over Trump's land swap proposal from the outset.

"The talks will address, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression," the German government said in a statement about the trip to the US capital.

"This includes maintaining pressure on sanctions."

The goal for Monday’s talks in Washington is to present a united front between Ukraine and its European allies, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday.

"If we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflicts," he added.

Macron said Kyiv's allies in Sunday's "coalition of the willing" meeting, which leaders joined by video before heading to Washington, wanted strong and lasting peace in Ukraine and for Ukraine's territorial integrity to be respected.

Strength and safety in numbers appear to be factors in the group visit, with memories still fresh about the hostile reception Zelensky received in February from Trump and US Vice-President J.D. Vance in a public White House dressing-down, castigating the Ukrainian leader as being ungrateful and "disrespectful".

While Zelensky has welcomed Trump's efforts to end the war, in a post on social media on Saturday, he warned that "it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades".

The Ukrainian President has also repeatedly reiterated that Kyiv will not swap any of its land to attain a ceasefire. Ukraine's Constitution forbids the ceding of territory.

According to Zelensky, Putin has asked that Russia be handed over all of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a third of which Kyiv still holds.

In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian President said that "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier" and pointed out that he doesn't have the authority to sign off on land swaps. He said that changing Ukraine's 1991 borders runs counter to the country's Constitution.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months.

In his statement after the Alaska summit, Putin signalled no movement in Russia's long-held demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv's desired membership in the NATO alliance.

He also warned Ukraine and its European allies not to "create any obstacles" and "that they will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigue".

The diplomatic focus now switches to Zelensky's talks at the White House on Monday with the European leaders in tow.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said getting to a peace agreement would still take a lot of work.

"We're not at the precipice of a peace agreement," he said.

"We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement. So we're still a long ways off."

"Now, ultimately, if there isn't a peace agreement, if there isn't an end of this war, the President's been clear, there are going to be consequences," Rubio told the ABC News.

"But we're trying to avoid that. And the way we're trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities."

--IANS

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