WASHINGTON — Seven European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Monday in a uncommon show of trans-Atlantic unity. The gathering marked the primary time in a long time that such a broad delegation of allies had assembled on the White Home underneath such urgent circumstances.
Shortly after midday, one after the other, the heads of state and NATO companions handed the White Home gates, the place they have been met by President Donald Trump’s chief of protocol, and in Zelenskyy’s case, by Trump himself.
Some met with Trump’s particular envoy for Ukraine and different officers that morning. Others made their option to the White Home instantly from Dulles and different airports. They have been there to bolster Zelenskyy after a disastrous White Home go to in February, when he clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance — and after Trump held an almost three-hour one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin final week.
The present of assist for Zelenskyy concerned French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, who pivoted from their very own nationwide agendas to current a united entrance as Trump seeks an pressing finish to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
The show passed off inside days of Trump’s assembly with Putin in Alaska and forward of a attainable Trump-brokered assembly between Putin and Zelenskyy as Trump casts himself as a possible peace dealer.
Contained in the Oval Workplace on Monday, evoking a boardroom scene, Trump sat behind the Resolute desk, army flags at his again, as Zelenskyy and the European delegation confronted him, as mirrored in a photograph shared by the White Home. Manufactured from oak timbers taken from a British ship, the desk is a hulking nineteenth century reminder of goodwill between necessary allies, a present from Britain’s Queen Victoria to america. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are seen orbiting within the background, together with senior White Home employees members.
There are few precedents for the gathering, which merged diplomacy with Trump’s regular verve.
In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt hosted Winston Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland to signal the Atlantic Constitution, laying out the Allied goals for the tip of World Struggle II and conferences that might determine the destiny of Europe and Asia. Through the Chilly Struggle, summits in Washington helped determine the phrases of German reunification. They included conferences with Soviet chief Mikhail Gorbachev amid a key query over whether or not Germany would be a part of NATO. And in 1950, the British prime minister rushed to Washington to seek the advice of Harry Truman over fears of the attainable use of nuclear weapons through the Korean Struggle.
“Washington has usually been the scene of those nice moments of diplomacy. However it was the pace with which this got here collectively that was so putting and units this aside,” mentioned Marc Selverstone, director of presidential research on the College of Virginia’s Miller Heart of Public Affairs. “Everybody realized this was a disaster second.”
The urgency was mirrored in how shortly the previous few days’ occasions got here collectively: Trump’s talks with Putin on Friday have been adopted by the leaders’ arrival in Washington on Monday morning. “Each single certainly one of them received on a airplane 48 hours later and flew to america of America,” mentioned White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt, dashing to Washington in a bid to maintain momentum towards peace in Ukraine alive.
The day additionally supplied different made-for-TV moments, as Trump escorted the leaders to a present store of types, which he dubbed the “Monica Lewinsky room” in reference to a former president’s trysts, the place he confirmed off rows of fireside engine pink hats emblazoned together with his marketing campaign slogans, together with one for 2028. At one other level, Trump deflected a query to Zelenskyy about Ukraine’s elections to joke about serving a 3rd time period himself.
Instructed via images shared on-line by his crew, Trump offered a towering determine in Monday’s conferences. In an image posted by deputy chief of employees Dan Scavino, Zelenskyy stood earlier than a map of Ukraine as Trump appeared down at him. One other picture posted by the White Home confirmed Trump seated behind his historic desk, this time with Vance and Rubio earlier than him, the telephone handset resting on the desk as he talked with Putin.
For Zelenskyy, Monday additionally supplied a reset. After a tense Oval Workplace assembly this yr, he struck a extra diplomatic tone Monday, providing Trump and others his thanks greater than a dozen instances, together with for the invitation, for Trump’s efforts “to cease killings and cease this conflict,” for Melania Trump’s letter to Putin asking him to guard kids, for a program to buy American weapons and to the European companions for his or her assist. On his X account, he supplied profuse, continued thanks effectively into Tuesday.
Carrying a swimsuit as a substitute of his regular army fatigues, he advised Trump as he greeted him that the apparel was “the most effective I had.”
“I find it irresistible,” Trump mentioned, in the end sharing a video of the nice and cozy alternate on his social media platform, Reality Social.
Requested what his message to the folks of Ukraine was, Trump advised a reporter, “We love them.”
Vance, who had publicly clashed with Zelenskyy of their final White Home assembly, additionally sought to clean relations, posting a photograph of their handshake.
Finland’s participation carried its personal symbolic weight, with one reminder of a path out of a seemingly intractable battle with a nuclear-powered Soviet Union, which Stubb referred to instantly.
“We, in fact, have our personal historic expertise with Russia from World Struggle II, the Winter Struggle and the Struggle of Continuation,” Stubb mentioned. “And if I take a look at the silver lining of the place we stand proper now, we discovered an answer in 1944, and I’m positive we’ll be capable of discover a answer in 2025.”
