Samuel Omang
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday he was ready to work to end the war with Russia ahead of talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, where he could face pressure to accept terms favorable to Moscow.
“Russia can only be forced into peace through strength, and President Trump has that strength,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media after meeting with the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Zelenskiy is due to meet with Trump at 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 GMT) in the Oval Office, where he last received a dressing-down from Trump during a disastrous visit in February.
Trump is pressing for a quick end to Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years, but Kyiv and its allies worry he could try to impose a deal tilted toward Moscow, especially after Trump rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last Friday.
Overnight, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities killed at least 10 people in what Zelenskiy called a “cynical” effort to undermine the peace talks.
European leaders have also arrived in Washington to show solidarity with Ukraine and to push for strong security guarantees in any eventual settlement. After meeting Zelenskiy, Trump is expected to host leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union, and NATO in the White House’s East Room.
“I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them,” Trump wrote on social media.
At the weekend, Trump dismissed accusations that his Alaska summit was a victory for Putin. His team has said that compromises are necessary on both sides, but Trump himself has put the burden on Zelenskiy, saying Ukraine should give up hopes of regaining Crimea or joining NATO.
“Zelenskiy can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on social media.
Zelenskiy has already rejected the outline of Putin’s proposals from the Alaska meeting. They included ceding the remaining quarter of Donetsk region, largely controlled by Russian forces. Ukrainian troops are deeply entrenched in the area, using its towns and hills as a defensive stronghold.
Zelenskiy is instead seeking an immediate ceasefire to enable deeper peace talks. Trump once supported that approach but shifted after his meeting with Putin, backing Russia’s preferred model of negotiating a comprehensive deal while fighting continues.
Ukraine and its allies remain cautiously hopeful about Trump’s hints at possible post-war security guarantees for Ukraine. A German government spokesperson confirmed that European leaders would press for clarity on this in Washington.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, more than one million people on both sides have been killed or wounded, including thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
On the battlefield, Russia continues to make slow but steady advances, using superior manpower and firepower. Putin has vowed to fight until Moscow’s military objectives are met.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv killed seven people, including a toddler and her teenage brother. Strikes in Zaporizhzhia killed three more.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, and its defense ministry made no mention of the Kharkiv strike.
Local resident Olena Yakusheva, whose apartment block was hit, said: “There are no offices here or anything else, we lived here peacefully in our homes.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said its own drones struck an oil pumping station in Russia’s Tambov region, suspending flows through the Druzhba pipeline.