European leaders to join Zelenskyy-Trump meeting at White House
Shafaq News – Brussels / Moscow / Kyiv
European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump at the White House on August 18 for talks following Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed her attendance on Sunday, posting on X that she would meet “President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow” at Zelenskyy’s request.
This afternoon, I will welcome @ZelenskyyUa in Brussels.Together, we will participate in the Coalition of Willing VTC. At the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 17, 2025
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb are also expected, according to a European official cited by CNN.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have likewise committed. Merz’s office described the gathering as “an exchange of information” with Trump following his meeting with Putin.
Morgen reise ich mit Präsident @ZelenskyyUa und anderen europäischen Staats- und Regierungschefs nach Washington. Wir tauschen uns mit US-Präsident Trump aus: zum Stand der Friedensbemühungen, Sicherheitsgarantien, territorialen Fragen und der weiteren Unterstützung der Ukraine.
— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) August 17, 2025
The wave of visits comes after Trump pledged to intensify diplomacy at the Alaska summit, later writing on Truth Social that a “peace agreement” — not a ceasefire — was the best way to end the war.
Separately, Ukraine’s core European allies — the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” — will convene today by video conference ahead of Zelenskyy’s White House meeting. The Élysée Palace said the session, co-chaired by Macron, Merz, and Starmer, begins at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET). It will be the coalition’s second meeting in a week, part of efforts to coordinate long-term security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Despite the diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, hostilities persisted. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have intercepted 46 Ukrainian drones overnight between August 16–17, including 16 over Belgorod and 14 over Nizhny Novgorod, with others shot down across Voronezh, Bryansk, Kursk, Orel, Kaluga, and Smolensk.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported 68 Russian airstrikes in the same period, involving 127 guided bombs, nearly 4,800 kamikaze drones, and more than 5,900 artillery and rocket attacks across Sumy, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. It said its forces repelled dozens of assaults from Kupiansk and Lyman to Kramatorsk, Toretsk, and Zaporizhzhia, claiming Russian losses of roughly 900 troops, four tanks, eight armored vehicles, and nearly 50 artillery systems in a single day.
