Trump’s attacks on Zelenskyy have upended US support for Ukraine and Washington’s allies more broadly and stoked concern about the United States pivoting to Russia.
After weekend crisis talks in London, Britain and France are investigating how to propose a one-month truce “in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure” to halt the war.
The summit reaffirmed European backing for Kyiv and saw a pledge to spend more on security to defend any truce, including, potentially, with troops.
Zelenskyy said after the meeting that discussions were still focusing on the “first steps,” adding: “An agreement on ending the war is very, very far away” – a comment that angered Trump.
However, Zelenskyy said Monday on X he “very much hopes on US support on the path to peace.”
“It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war as soon as possible,” he said.
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, dismissed Zelenskyy’s comments, accusing him of not wanting peace – echoing US criticisms after he was shouted down in the Oval Office on Friday.
‘Deliberate escalation’?
On the ground, Ukrainian officials reported fatalities from a Russian missile strike on a military training facility, some 130km from the front line.
A respected military blogger said between 30 and 40 soldiers were killed and 90 more wounded in the attack near Dnipro on Saturday.
Trump has previously called Zelenskyy, president since 2019, a “dictator” for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war.
Zelenskyy dismissed calls for him to resign, repeating his pledge to do so only if Ukraine were given Nato membership, which Russia – and now the United States under Trump – opposes.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed Zelenskyy for Friday’s White House blow-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, saying he “demonstrated a complete lack of diplomatic abilities.”
“He doesn’t want peace,” Peskov told reporters.
But Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the astonishing clash was a “deliberate escalation” by Trump.
“According to my assessment this was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelenskyy was saying, but clearly a deliberate escalation,” Merz said, calling the tone of the clash “unhelpful”.
But he said there was a “certain continuity” after Vice-President JD Vance last month urged Europe to “step up” in managing its security and criticised European countries on a range of culture-war issues.
US and Russian officials have held talks on ending the war, enraging Ukraine and Europe for being sidelined, and prompting fears in Kyiv and beyond that any deal could threaten the country’s future.
Zelenskyy triggered Trump and Vance’s ire by questioning whether Russia could be trusted to uphold a truce. Trump has said he trusts his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “keep his word.”
US support
French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Figaro newspaper that a truce would not, initially at least, cover ground fighting, as the size of the meandering front line would make it hard to enforce.
Macron also suggested that European countries should raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5% of GDP to respond to Washington’s shifting priorities and Russia’s militarization.
Shares in European defense companies soared on Monday as a result.
Macron met Trump in Washington last week, as did Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with both seeking to keep Trump onside.
Starmer on Sunday insisted that the United States was “not an unreliable ally,” despite Trump’s overtures to Putin and open hostility to Zelenskyy.
US support was still needed to end the fighting, he said.
Zelenskyy maintained that he remains open to signing a mineral deal coveted by Trump and had not closed the door to any future relations, despite his experience last week.
“I am ready to engage in any kind of constructive format in relations with the US,” he said.
