Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” before an expected summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary. The Ukrainian president said the aim of the visit was to win security guarantees for Kyiv, with “many meetings and negotiations in Europe” this week.
The trip follows a fractious White House meeting last week where Trump reportedly urged Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war, including giving up the Donbas region. Reports indicated that Trump echoed Moscow’s maximalist demands, warning that Putin would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree. Ukraine’s call for Tomahawk cruise missiles was rebuffed during the talks.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that “nothing can come out of these meetings if Ukraine or Europe is not part of it”. She said Putin would only negotiate seriously if he thinks he is losing, and that putting pressure on Ukraine was “not the right approach”. French President Emmanuel Macron also stressed that Ukrainians and Europeans must be at the table in talks to end the war.
The EU is discussing a €140bn loan for Ukraine funded by frozen Russian central bank assets, with Kallas saying there is broad support among member countries. EU leaders are set to discuss the loan at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. Zelenskyy has also called for the delivery of 25 additional US Patriot anti-missile batteries amid Russia’s escalating air war on Ukrainian infrastructure.
