European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, attended a meeting in Washington to discuss the Ukraine conflict. The meeting was marked by a positive mood, unlike the recent confrontation between Trump and Vice President Vance in the Oval Office. Trump emphasized that while peace is within reach, there are still significant hurdles on the road to peace.
Trump promised an imminent trilateral meeting between Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and himself, where the knottiest issues of the conflict could be unpicked. Zelensky expressed his “really good” conversation with Trump, but the underlying contours of the conflict remain unclear. Europeans praised Trump for committing to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a settlement, but the pledge came with no specifics. Starmer, Meloni, and von der Leyen discussed guarantees akin to NATO’s Article 5, which holds that member nations will come to the defense of any ally attacked.
Zelensky expressed willingness to discuss territorial changes at a trilateral meeting, but nothing more on the topic, making it difficult to gauge his willingness to take pain for peace. The lack of concrete detail makes it hard to argue a settlement is any closer.
European leaders trooped to Washington as reinforcements for Zelensky, aiming to prevent a repeat of the earlier Oval Office humiliation of the Ukrainian president and defend Kyiv’s interests more broadly.
