Zelensky and European leaders hold a"preparatory meeting" before meeting with Trump

Before setting foot in the White House, European leaders want the main actor, Volodymyr Zelensky, to have everything in place and for coordination with Europe to be complete as well. According to the European Commission, whose president, Ursula von der Leyen, is one of the Ukrainian president's entourage, the president held a"preparatory meeting" with his European counterparts and Zelensky ahead of the day's key meetings with US President Donald Trump.

Brussels has not revealed details of the meeting, which was barely scheduled in von der Leyen's official agenda, but given that the White House planned to begin the series of meetings at noon local time, it was supposed to take place in the US morning (Spanish afternoon). The German traveled to Washington along with several European leaders—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; French President Emmanuel Macron; his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; and her British counterpart Keir Starmer; as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte—to support Zelensky. This is not a gratuitous gesture: this is the Ukrainian president's first visit to the White House since the disastrous meeting last February, when Zelensky stormed out of the Oval Office after a heated exchange with Trump and, above all, with his Vice President, JD Vance, which seriously damaged bilateral relations. Several of the leaders now deployed to Washington, especially Starmer and Macron, have had to work hard to reestablish diplomatic bridges.

The meeting also comes after the bilateral summit Trump held with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday in Alaska, which, despite the American's assertions, was above all a political blow to the Kremlin leader: without giving in on any of his main positions, Putin managed to break the international isolation to which he has been subjected by the West since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine and was received with the highest honors by a Trump who shortly before was still threatening to redouble sanctions against Moscow.

European leaders, ignored once again (like Zelensky himself) at a meeting where Europe's future and security are also at stake, want to ensure that, as Macron said on Sunday on the eve of his trip, from now on"there will be no discussions about Ukraine without the Ukrainians, nor discussions about the security of Europeans without them."

"We're not just going to support Zelensky. We're going to defend the interests of Europeans... Europe doesn't want to be at the table for major discussions, as a topic of debate. Europe must be at the table to talk about itself and its future," the French president stressed.