{"id":161069,"date":"2025-08-18T05:57:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T05:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-european-leaders-to-back-zelensky-today-as-trump-says-kyiv-can-end-war-immediately-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T05:57:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T05:57:04","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-european-leaders-to-back-zelensky-today-as-trump-says-kyiv-can-end-war-immediately-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-european-leaders-to-back-zelensky-today-as-trump-says-kyiv-can-end-war-immediately-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: European leaders to back Zelensky today as Trump says Kyiv can end war \u2018immediately\u2019 – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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US president asks Kyiv to forget Crimea and Nato membership for peace deal
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Top European leaders will throw their weight behind Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> ahead of his meeting with US president Donald Trump<\/a> at the White House<\/a> today.
Trump will meet Zelensky at 1.15pm (5.15pm GMT) and hold a multilateral meeting with European leaders visiting Washington<\/a> at 3pm.
After meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin<\/a> in Alaska<\/a> on Friday, Trump is pushing Zelensky to strike a peace agreement instead of a ceasefire deal without Crimea<\/a> and Nato membership \u2013 reiterating Moscow<\/a>\u2019s position.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine<\/a> can end the war with Russia<\/a> almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on his Truth Social<\/a> platform. “No getting back Obama given Crimea<\/a>…and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Putin<\/a> agreed during his meeting with Trump to let the US and its European allies <\/a>offer Ukraine<\/a> security guarantees<\/a>, US envoy Steve Witkoff said.
\u201cWe were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato<\/a>,” Mr Witkoff told CNN<\/a>.
The free world\u2019s most celebrated president <\/a>is showing some mettle in agreeing to a meeting with the leader of the free world. When Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> walks into the Oval Office today, he knows he\u2019s risking another ambush<\/a>.
The Ukrainian president is prepared to gamble that he\u2019ll get another White House<\/a> schoolyard bullying session, because there\u2019s a slim chance that Donald Trump<\/a> may finally have tired of being played by the Kremlin<\/a>.
It is now conceivable, just, that Trump is prepared to consider security guarantees for Ukraine<\/a> that reflect Nato\u2019s Article 5, which could mean that if Ukraine<\/a> signed up to a peace deal<\/a> then its long-term future sovereignty and security would be protected, by force of arms, by allies including the US.
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, spoke with Trump and went public with the idea (that had been hers in the first place) suggesting that the US president had bought into the concept.
The future of Ukraine\u2019s industrial heartland in the east of the country is uncertain, after Vladimir Putin reportedly demanded it be handed to Russia during his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday.
The Russian leader demanded that Ukrainian<\/a> forces withdraw from Donetsk <\/a>as part of any ceasefire deal, and said he would be prepared to stop fighting <\/a>on the rest of the frontline if Kyiv gave in to the demand and addressed the \u201croot causes of the conflict\u201d.
The Ukrainian president has said that Putin wants to take the remaining 30 per cent of the eastern region<\/a>, which has been the location of some of the fiercest battles in the three-and-a-half-year war.
As all eyes turn to Washington DC<\/a> on Monday, one of the key issues that is likely to be a sore topic for Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> is the prospect of relinquishing land to secure peace<\/a> for Ukraine<\/a>.
Despite launching an illegal invasion, Vladimir Putin<\/a> is understood to have demanded that Kyiv surrender the eastern Donetsk<\/a> and Luhansk<\/a> provinces as a condition for ending the war.
Such a move would effectively hand over Ukraine\u2019s industrial heartland<\/a>, giving Russia<\/a> control of the Donbas region, where the majority of the heavy fighting has taken place since February 2022.
European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>, will join Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> for a high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump<\/a> at the White House on Monday.<\/a>
The prime minister will travel to Washington<\/a> alongside several European leaders<\/a> in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian president, whose last visit to the Oval Office<\/a> ended in a disastrous clash with Mr Trump.
The summit comes just days after the US president met Vladimir Putin<\/a> in Alaska, in which it is understood that the Russian president demanded <\/a>that Ukraine<\/a> cede the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for ending the war.
Vladimir Putin agreed to allow the US and its European allies to offer Ukraine security guarantees at his meeting with Donald Trump, US envoy Steve Witkoff said.
\u201cWe were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato,” Witkoff told CNN.
He added that it was “the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that\u201d and called this \u201cgame-changing.\u201d
Article 5 states that an armed attack against one or more of the Nato members shall be considered an attack against all members.
Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with Trump at the White House on Monday. Sir Keir Starmer will join Zelensky and other European leaders will be attending the talks.
At the Alaska summit on Friday, Putin reportedly insisted Ukraine must surrender Donetsk and Luhansk in full and abandon its Nato aspirations. He offered to freeze the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, sources close to the meeting told The Independent<\/em>.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he has reached Washington just few minutes back and said that he hopes Ukraine’s “shared strength” with the US and European counterparts will compel Russia to peace.
\u201cI have already arrived in Washington, tomorrow I am meeting with President Trump. Tomorrow we are also speaking with European leaders. I am grateful to @POTUS for the invitation,\u201d he said in a pozt on X.
He added: \u201cWe all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East \u2013 part of Donbas \u2013 and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.\u201d
\u201cI am confident that we will defend Ukraine, effectively guarantee security, and that our people will always be grateful to President Trump, everyone in America, and every partner and ally for their support and invaluable assistance. Russia must end this war, which it itself started,\u201d he said.
European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelensky to meet Donald Trump in Washington, seeking to shore up Zelensky’s position as the US president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal to end Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years.
Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland are rallying around the Ukrainian president after his exclusion from Trump’s summit on Friday with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian premier Giorgia Meloni and Finnish president Alexander Stubb also said they’ll will take part in Monday’s talks, as will secretary-general of the Nato military alliance, Mark Rutte.
Their pledge to be at Zelensky’s side at the White House today is an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelensky in a heated Oval Office encounter.
Trump is leaning on Zelensky to strike an agreement after he met Russian leader Putin in Alaska and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first.
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inNext articleUS president asks Kyiv to forget Crimea and Nato membership for peace dealFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}