Ahead of his meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, US President Donald Trump said Ukraine could end the war “almost immediately,” if it accepted “two conditions,” no NATO membership and accepted Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He stated that both were “off the table.” Upon arriving in Washington, Zelensky expressed gratitude for the invite to Trump. However, he emphasised that Ukraine wanted a “lasting peace” and not the temporary peace reached in 2014, suggesting that he would not be giving up Crimea for good.
Trump labelled the summit a “big day” for the United States, and shrugged off duplicitous press criticism as “fake news.” He also went on to dismiss descriptions about having Putin at a summit in the US as a diplomatic defeat, arguing it was a US victory.
Zelensky was scheduled to meet Trump privately before meeting with European leaders including: the UK’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, NATO’s Mark Rutte and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, underscoring the global context and ramifications of the war.
