Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Saturday that he will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, just days after Trump’s high-profile yet inconclusive summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Zelenskyy said he had a “long, meaningful” phone call with Trump following the Alaska talks, which marked Putin’s first visit to Western soil since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine but failed to yield a breakthrough.
While Trump described the discussions with Putin as showing “nascent progress,” he stressed, “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” Putin, on the other hand, claimed an “understanding” had been reached and cautioned Europe against undermining the process.
Before leaving Alaska, Trump told Fox News that advancing peace could “fall more on Zelenskyy to get it done,” while also urging greater involvement from European nations.
Upon returning to Washington, Trump did not address the media. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed he had been on calls with NATO and European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. No details were disclosed.
Meanwhile, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told Russian state television that a potential trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy “has not been touched upon yet” in US–Russia discussions.
Even as diplomacy stalled, Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine. Kyiv’s Air Force reported overnight strikes involving one ballistic missile and 85 Shahed drones, 61 of which were intercepted. Front-line regions, including Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Chernihiv, came under heavy fire.
