Welcome back to our coverage of the very latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s main European allies and other members of the “coalition of the willing” will meet virtually today, as the White House prepares to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
The flurry of diplomacy comes as US President Donald Trump seeks to arrange a trilateral meeting between himself, Zelensky and Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin for high stakes talks aimed at resolving the war in Ukraine.
Here are the key things to know:
Coalition of the willing: French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are expected to chair a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” on Sunday. It’s the second meeting this week of the group that was set up earlier this year to provide Ukraine with security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire.
Zelensky to the White House: Several European leaders are expected to join Trump for his Oval Office meeting with Zelensky on Monday, a White House official told CNN. US Vice President JD Vance is also expected to attend but the final list of attendees is still undetermined. European officials anticipate at least one other leader from the continent will take part. Trump has told them he hopes to arrange a trilateral summit with Zelensky and Putin by next Friday.
Zelensky doubts Russia: Zelensky said he is “grateful for the invitation” to meet with Trump at the White House, in a post on X, but added that Russia “rejecting numerous demands for a ceasefire… complicates the situation.”
What Putin wants: Putin insisted Ukraine gives up the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, according to European officials familiar with Trump’s accounting of the meeting to his counterparts afterward. In return, he’s said to have offered to freeze current front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and pledged not to attack Ukraine or other European nations again. However, he maintained demands for Ukraine to reduce its military, abandon NATO ambitions and adopt neutrality.
Hand-delivered: Zelensky’s chief of staff thanked US First Lady Melania Trump for urging Putin to protect Ukrainian children in a letter her husband hand-delivered to Putin in Alaska. “The return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia should be a key condition for any peace agreement,” Andriy Yermak wrote on social media Saturday. More than 35,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to over 100 locations in Russia and Russian-occupied territory during the war, according to the Ukraine Conflict Observatory.
