Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy heads to Washington on Monday for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump under mounting pressure to accept a rapid settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The visit comes just days after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which rattled Kyiv and its European allies.
Despite Trump’s high-profile outreach to Putin, the Alaska talks produced no ceasefire. Instead, Trump declared that he now wanted a “full-fledged peace deal,” urging Kyiv to accept terms because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.” The comments set the stage for a fraught meeting, with Zelenskiy seeking to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty while avoiding a repeat of February’s Oval Office clash, when Trump publicly rebuked him for being “intransigent.”
According to sources familiar with the latest discussions, Trump pressed Zelenskiy in a weekend call to consider a deal that would see Ukrainian forces withdraw from parts of eastern Donetsk, a region Russia has fought to seize for years. Zelenskiy firmly rejected the idea, saying ceding internationally recognized territory was unacceptable. Ukrainian officials argue Donetsk serves as a defensive bulwark against deeper Russian advances.
Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, warned that Trump’s push for a deal over a ceasefire carried “great risks,” noting that Putin’s vision of peace involves blocking Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, imposing so-called “denazification,” and securing cultural and religious concessions.
While the U.S. remains Kyiv’s key military backer, Zelenskiy is seeking robust security guarantees as part of any settlement. Discussions are underway about arrangements outside NATO but akin to the alliance’s Article 5, though details remain unclear. European leaders, reportedly invited to join Monday’s meeting, are pushing for clarity on the U.S. role.
For Zelenskiy, the challenge is balancing Ukraine’s security needs with the pressure from Washington. A trilateral summit with Trump and Putin remains his preferred format, which he reiterated on Saturday, stressing that “key issues must be discussed at the level of leaders.”
As Kyiv braces for another tense Washington encounter, the stakes are high: a misstep could not only weaken Ukraine’s negotiating position but also fracture critical Western unity against Moscow.
