Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With President Donald Trump ‘directing’ Ukraine to give up on its quest for a NATO membership, or retrieving Crimea from Russia, ahead of the visits of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a European delegation, there is little hope of any breakthrough on the Ukraine war imbroglio.
President Zelenskyy and his European allies are set to meet Trump separately in Washington on Monday, amid European fears that the US President may push the Ukrainian leader into an ‘unfavourable deal.’
Amid Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine, and the fresh air attack at Kharkiv, Kyiv has already rejected President Vladimir Putin’s “proposals” after his Alaska summit with Trump on Saturday last, which failed to break any ice so far.
Desperate to show at least some results in the Ukraine war that he blamed on his predecessor Joe Biden, and coax Moscow to end the conflict, the US President told Ukraine to forget getting back Crimea, which Russia annexed 11 years ago, or joining NATO as he prepared to host Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington on Monday to press Kyiv into accepting a peace deal with Russia.
After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday last week, Trump is leaning on Ukraine to accept a deal to end Europe’s deadliest war since the end of the Second World War in 1945, which has killed around 600,000 and displaced millions.
Hoping for and pressing anyone, who would listen to him, to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump will meet first Zelenskyy and then the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO, the media reported.
The European leaders are flying to Washington to show solidarity with Ukraine and to press for strong security guarantees in any post-war settlement—all this while continuing to buy energy and other items from Russia, directly or indirectly.
Trump’s team stressed on Sunday that there had to be compromises on both sides. But Trump put the burden on Zelenskyy to end the war that Russia began on February 24, 2022, with its full-scale invasion it claimed would be a 48-hour-long “special military operation.” That, along with his comments on NATO and Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014 during Barack Obama’s presidency, suggested he would press Zelenskyy hard at Monday’s meeting.
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.”
Ukraine and its allies have long feared that Trump could press an agreement favourable to Moscow. However, they still have hope from Trump’s apparent willingness to provide post-settlement security guarantee for Ukraine, which some analyst suspect as a typical Trump hoax.
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 a quarter.
He 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.
Trump will meet first with Zelenskyy at 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 GMT) in the Oval Office and then with all the European leaders together in the White House’s East Room at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), the White House said.
The Ukrainian President, seeking to avoid a repeat of the bad-tempered Oval Office faceoff with Trump in February, said after arriving in Washington late on Sunday he was grateful to the US President 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 into real peace.”
On the battlefield, Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower. Putin said he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved.
Putin’s proposals appear impossible for Zelenskyy to accept. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the Donetsk region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks.
Concerned that they would be shut out of the conversation after a summit with Putin, to which they were not invited, European leaders held a call with Zelenskyy on Sunday to align on a common strategy for the meetings with Trump.
“D-Day at the White House,” announced Britain’s Daily Mail, while the Daily Mirror said “Europe takes a stand” in its front- page headline. Germany’s Die Welt called it the “moment of truth” for President 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 press briefing.
Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
However, 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.