Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold a crucial meeting at the White House today with his US counterpart Donald Trump. The visit comes at a critical moment for the future of the war in Ukraine, just days after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska - where a possible peace deal was discussed.
Today's meeting is expected to be highly political and diplomatic. To avoid a repeat of the recent clash with Trump - who once publicly criticized him for everything from his clothing to his requests for military aid - Zelenskyy is not alone this time. He is accompanied by a group of senior European leaders, who are intent on avoiding any deal that would require territorial concessions from Kiev.
According to the published agenda, the official meeting will begin at 1:15 p.m. local time (7:15 p.m. Albanian time), while a joint meeting with European leaders will be held at 9 p.m. There is no set duration for this meeting yet.
A few hours before the meeting, Trump posted a message on his Truth Social network, in which he declared that Zelenskyy “could end the war immediately if he wanted to,” ruling out the possibility of Ukraine returning Crimea or joining NATO. “There is no way to get back Crimea given to us by Obama… Some things never change,” Trump wrote in his post.
The meeting is expected to be crucial for the progress of peace negotiations and for Ukraine's international position in the coming months.
