Zelenskyy, flanked by Europe, heads to Washington as Trump presses for Russia deal

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders will meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to map out a peace deal amid fears the US president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow.

The European leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland and NATO hope to shore up Zelenskyy at a crucial diplomatic moment in the war and prevent any repetition of the bad-tempered Oval Office encounter between Trump and Ukraine's leader in February.

Trump will meet first with Zelenskyy at 1:15 pm Eastern Daylight Time (1715 GMT) in the Oval Office and then with all the European leaders together in the White House's East Room at 3 pm EDT (1900 GMT), the White House said.

After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Trump said an agreement should be struck to end the 42-month-long war which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

"Russia is a very big power, and they're not," Trump said of Ukraine afterwards.

However, Zelenskyy has already all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals at that meeting, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region, of which it currently controls a quarter. "We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now," the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels on Sunday, adding that his country's constitution made it impossible for him to give away territory.

More concerning for him is the fact that Trump, who previously favoured Kyiv's proposal for an immediate ceasefire to conduct deeper peace talks, reversed course after the summit and indicated support for Russia's favoured approach of negotiating a comprehensive deal while fighting rumbles on.

"I am grateful to the President of the United States for the invitation. We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app after arriving in Washington late on Sunday. "Russia must end this war — the war it started. And I hope that our shared strength with America and with our European friends will compel Russia to real peace."

The outline of Putin's proposals, reported by Reuters earlier, appears impossible for Zelenskyy to accept. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the Donetsk region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks.

As part of any peace deal, Kyiv wants security guarantees sufficient to deter Russia, which took Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a full invasion in 2022, from attacking again.

Fearing that they would be shut out of the conversation after a summit to which they were not invited, European leaders held a call with Zelenskyy on Sunday to align on a common strategy for the meeting with Trump on Monday.

The presence of six allies to back Zelenskyy may alleviate painful memories of his last Oval Office visit. "It's important for the Europeans to be there: (Trump) respects them, he behaves differently in their presence," Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker from Zelenskyy's ruling party, told Reuters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Zelenskyy. "They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They're coming here tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans," he said. "We invited them to come."

Relations between Kyiv and Washington, once extremely close, have been rocky since Trump took office in January.

However, Ukraine's pressing need for US weapons and intelligence sharing, some of which have no viable alternative, has forced Zelenskyy and his allies on the continent to appease Trump, even when his statements appear contradictory to their objectives.

On the battlefield Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing home its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved.

Ukraine hopes that the changing technological nature of the war and its ability to inflict massive casualties on Moscow will allow it to hold out, supported by European financial and military aid even if relations with Washington collapse.