European leaders to join Zelensky in US

BRUSSELS/MOSCOW/KYIV — European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington on Monday, in an attempt to seek an end to the Ukraine conflict.

It follows US President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday that failed to produce any breakthrough.

The leaders heading to Washington on Monday include those from Britain, France, and Germany, and the NATO secretary-general.

A day before the talks with Trump, leaders of France, Germany and Britain hosted a video call for their so-called "coalition of the willing" to discuss steps toward ending the Ukraine conflict.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is also going to the White House, and Zelensky, who arrived in Brussels on Sunday, also dialed in.

In a joint statement on Saturday, European leaders said Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be fully respected.

They underlined that Ukraine must receive "ironclad security guarantees" to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the conflict broke out, had been one of the US president's core demands before the summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.

But after a meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday that yielded no clear breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

The talks, which lasted about three hours, focused primarily on the Ukraine crisis, as well as on reshaping bilateral relations that have largely stalled in recent years.

Putin on Saturday said at a meeting on the results of his talks with Trump that Russia respects the position of the US administration, which sees the need for an early cessation of hostilities. Russia would like to move on to resolving all issues through peaceful means, according to a statement released on Saturday by the Kremlin.

Putin said his visit to the US state of Alaska was timely and very useful, adding the talks covered almost all areas of Russia-US cooperation, as well as a possible settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a fair basis.

He said the conversation with Trump was "very frank" and "brings us closer to the necessary decisions".

Trump spoke with Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back to Washington, saying afterward that it was determined by all that the best way to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine "is to go directly to a peace agreement".

Ceasefire agreements "often times do not hold up", Trump added on his Truth Social platform.

Zelensky said he had a "long and substantive" conversation with Trump early on Saturday. He said they would "discuss all of the details" regarding ending the hostilities on Monday.

It will be Zelensky's first visit to the US since his last Oval Office visit in February that ended in an extraordinary shouting match, with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance publicly berating Zelensky for not showing enough gratitude for US aid.

Trump, who also held calls with European leaders on Saturday, confirmed the White House meeting and said that "if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin".

Despite a flurry of diplomatic moves, the conflict raged on as Kyiv and Moscow launched attack drones at each other on Sunday.

Kyiv's air force said Russia attacked Ukraine with 60 drones as well as an Iskander missile.

The governor of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, said Russian attacks killed five people in the area on Saturday.

In Russia, the defense ministry said Kyiv launched 46 drones at the country, mostly over border regions but also over the Nizhny Novgorod region.

The acting governor of the border Kursk region, Alexander Khinstein, said a Ukrainian drone attack killed a man in his car.

Agencies - Xinhua