President Trump is set to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on Monday for the first time since their disastrous meeting in February.
Trump appears set to pressure Zelensky into accepting a peace agreement based on terms he discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Alaska on Friday.
Zelensky will seek to avoid the type of fireworks that erupted during his last visit, without making painful concessions that reward Putin’s war efforts.
European leaders, who have staunchly backed Ukraine throughout the more than three-year conflict, will join a second meeting later in the day.
Here’s what Trump and Zelensky want out of the talks:
Trump
The president wants a peace agreement as soon as possible, and he is set to pressure Ukraine to make major concessions to Russia to secure it.
Trump has backed off demands for a short-term ceasefire, as Ukraine has demanded, and is instead focused on a broader agreement to permanently end the war.
But Trump has indicated territorial concessions will need to be part of the deal, and it’s unclear what exactly Putin would accept. U.S. officials have suggested Putin is willing to halt the war along the current “contact line” between Russian and Ukrainian forces, rather than the boundaries of four regions Russia illegally annexed in 2022.
Another open question is whether the U.S. will officially recognize Crimea as Russian territory, a designation Ukraine and Europe have adamantly opposed since it was occupied in 2014.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote Sunday night on his social platform Truth Social.
“No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” he added.
Ukraine has until now insisted on its right to self-determination on its security partnerships, pushing for eventual ascension into NATO, while Russia has pointed to Ukraine’s potential membership in the security alliance as justification for its war.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday that the U.S. was prepared to offer Ukraine security guarantees that were “like” NATO’s Article 5, which compels alliance members such as the U.S. to defend each other.
Witkoff said Putin has signed off on the idea, though it’s unclear what that arrangement might look like and whether it will be acceptable to Ukraine and Europe.
The White House is lobbying hard for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and a peace deal in Ukraine would be the ultimate feather in his peacemaker cap.
Zelensky
In an ideal world, Zelensky wants robust U.S. military support and harsh sanctions on Russia, measures he will certainly encourage in Monday’s meeting.
But he is likely to be more focused on avoiding commitments that undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and security — without infuriating Trump in the process.
Trump has regularly said Zelensky shares the blame for Russia’s invasion, and following his meeting with Putin on Friday, the U.S. president said it was largely up to Ukraine’s leader to make a deal.
Zelensky will seek to appear open to a peace agreement, most likely without agreeing to territorial concessions or restrictions on its military and security alliances. He will also try to convince Trump that it’s Putin who stands in the way of peace.
“Russia can only be forced into peace through strength, and President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,” Zelensky said after meeting with Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, earlier Monday.
Trump has agreed to allow the continued flow of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, as long as other NATO allies foot the bill.
But he has apparently dropped his threat to impose crushing “secondary sanctions” on Russia’s trading partners after the Alaska summit — at least for now.
Prior to the Alaska summit, Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s refusal to stop his attacks on Ukraine.
Zelensky and European leaders will remind Trump that this is Putin’s war and seek to nudge him back into alignment with their negotiating principles: no formal peace talks without a ceasefire, no restrictions on Ukraine’s future security arrangements, and maximum pressure on Putin to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in negotiations.
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