KYIV, Ukraine—European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington to present a united front in talks with President Donald Trump on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and firming up U.S. security guarantees now on the negotiating table.
Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland are rallying around the Ukrainian president. Their pledge to be at Zelenskyy’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 had a heated argument with Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.
Putin agreed at his summit in Alaska with Trump on Friday that the United States and its European allies could offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3.5-year war, special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union.”
It “was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that,” said Witkoff, who called it “game-changing.”
Later, French President Emmanuel Macron said the European delegation will ask Trump to back plans they drafted to beef-up Ukraine’s armed forces—already Europe’s largest outside of Russia—with more training and equipment to secure any peace.
“We need a credible format for the Ukrainian army, that’s the first point, and say—we Europeans and Americans—how we’ll train them, equip them, and finance this effort in the long-term,” the French leader said.
The European-drafted plans also envision an allied force in Ukraine away from the front lines to reassure Kyiv that peace will hold and to dissuade another Russian invasion, Macron said. He spoke after a nearly two-hour video call Sunday with nations in Europe and further afield—including Canada, Australia and Japan—that are involved in the so-called “coalition of the willing.”
The “several thousand men on the ground in Ukraine in the zone of peace” would signal that “our fates are linked,” Macron said.
“This is what we must discuss with the Americans: Who is ready to do what?” Macron said. “Otherwise, I think the Ukrainians simply cannot accept commitments that are theoretical.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier at a news conference in Brussels with Zelenskyy that “we welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. And the ‘coalition of the willing’—including the European Union—is ready to do its share.”
Macron said the substance of security guarantees will be more important than whether they are given an Article 5-type label.
“A theoretical article isn’t enough, the question is one of substance,” he said. “We must start out by saying that the first of the security guarantees for Ukraine is a strong Ukrainian army.”
Along with Von der Leyen and Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb also said they'll will take part in Monday's talks, as will secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte.
The European leaders’ support could help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that a possible cease-fire is “not off the table” but that the best way to end the war would be through a “full peace deal.”
Putin has implied that he sees Europe as a hindrance to negotiations. He has also resisted meeting Zelenskyy in person, saying that such a meeting can only take place once the groundwork for a peace deal has been laid.
Speaking to the press after his meeting with Trump, the Russian leader raised the idea that Kyiv and other European capitals could “create obstacles” to derail potential progress with “behind-the-scenes intrigue.”
Although details remain hazy on what Article 5-like security guarantees from the United States and Europe would entail for Ukraine, it could mirror NATO membership terms, in which an attack on one member of the alliance is seen as an attack on all.
Zelenskyy continues to stress the importance of both U.S. and European involvement in any negotiations.
“A security guarantee is a strong army. Only Ukraine can provide that. Only Europe can finance this army, and weapons for this army can be provided by our domestic production and European production. But there are certain things that are in short supply and are only available in the United States,” he said at the press conference Sunday alongside Von der Leyen.
Zelenskyy also pushed back against Trump's assertion—which aligned with Putin's preference—that the two sides should negotiate a complete end to the war, rather than first securing a cease-fire. Zelenskyy said a ceasefire would provide breathing room to review Putin's demands.
“It’s impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons,” he said. “Putin does not want to stop the killing, but he must do it.”