European leaders invited to White House for Trump-Zelensky meeting

Earlier, Zelensky said he will meet Trump in DC on Monday, after having a “long and substantive conversation” with the American leader and later with European leaders to debrief the Alaska summit.

“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace. President Trump informed about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion. It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation,” Zelensky announced in a statement Saturday – his first since the meeting in Alaska which he was excluded from.

“On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war. I am grateful for the invitation,” he added.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland, Finland, as well as the presidents of the EU Council and European Commission, praised the peace efforts in a statement published on Saturday, but vowed to continue providing military aid to Kiev.

“Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting,” they said.

The statement rejects any notion of a territorial compromise, stressing that it was “up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory.”

The European leaders added that they were ready to provide Kiev security guarantees via a so-called “coalition of the willing” – a France- and UK-led effort to deploy a NATO “reassurance force” in Ukraine, an initiative that Moscow has staunchly opposed.

“No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO,” the statement read.