European leaders to join Zelensky-Trump meeting

European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelensky to meet Donald Trump in Washington, they said on Sunday, seeking to shore up Zelensky's position as the US president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal to end Europe's deadliest war in 80 years.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a meeting of allies on Sunday to bolster Zelensky's hand, hoping in particular to lock down robust security guarantees for Ukraine that would include a US role.

The Europeans are keen to help Zelensky avoid a repeat of his last Oval Office meeting in February. That went disastrously, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance giving the Ukrainian leader a public dressing-down, accusing him of being ungrateful and disrespectful.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also travel to Washington, as will Finland's President Alexander Stubb, whose access to Trump included rounds of golf in Florida earlier this year, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is an admirer of many of Trump's policies.

Trump is leaning on Zelensky to strike an agreement after he met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Alaska and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump and Zelensky will meet on Monday.

"If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands ... we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don't want to wind up there," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation."

Trump on Sunday promised "BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA" in a social media post without specifying what this might be. Sources briefed on Moscow's thinking told media that the US and Russian leaders have discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.

Top Trump officials hinted that the fate of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region - which incorporates Donetsk and Luhansk and which is already mostly under Russian control - was on the line, while some sort of defensive pact was also on the table.

Rubio said both Russia and Ukraine would need to make concessions to reach a peace deal and that security guarantees for Ukraine would be discussed on Monday. He also said there would have to be additional consequences for Russia if no deal was reached.

"I'm not saying we're on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this," Rubio told broadcaster CBS.

However, he said the US may not be able to create a scenario to end the war.

For his part, Putin briefed his close ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, about the Alaska talks, and also spoke with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Trump said on Friday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not."

After the Alaska summit, Trump phoned Zelensky and told him that the Kremlin chief had offered to freeze most front lines if Ukraine ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow's main targets, a source familiar with the matter said. Zelensky rejected the demand.

"We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection," Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, suggesting this would be in lieu of Ukraine seeking Nato membership.

"The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that."

Reuters