KYIV In a show of support for the Ukrainian leader following his absence from Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, European and NATO leaders said Sunday they will be traveling to Washington to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for important negotiations.
In an apparent attempt to improve on the previous meeting in February, when Trump chastised the Ukrainian president in a heated Oval Office encounter, a number of European leaders have announced that they will accompany Zelenskyy when he visits the White House on Monday.
Retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France’s military mission at the UN, stated, “The Europeans want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt because they are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated.”
“It’s a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump,” he was told over the phone.
Concerns in Kyiv and other European capitals that Ukraine would be forced into a peace agreement that Trump claims he wants to broker with Russia may be allayed by the European leaders’ presence at Zelenskyy’s side, indicating Europe’s support for Ukraine.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether all or just some of them would be taking part in the actual meeting with Trump.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on X that she will participate in the negotiations “at the request of President Zelenskyy.”
According to his press agency, Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, will also attend the conference.
The French leader will visit Washington on Monday “at the side of President Zelenskyy,” according to President Emmanuel Macron’s office, though it did not immediately state that he would be attending the meeting.
Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany, will also be a member of the European group, although his office did not say in the statement that he would be participating in the discussions with Trump.
After the U.S. president’s Friday summit with Putin, to which Zelenskyy was not invited, the group travel demonstrated European leaders’ resolve to guarantee that Europe had a say in Trump’s attempted peacemaking.
Copyright 2025 NPR
