The Italian Prime Minister and the President of Finland join a crucial meeting in Washington to discuss the Alaska summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend tomorrow’s crucial summit in Washington with Donald Trump, accompanied by the leaders of the European Union, NATO, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom to discuss the country’s future following the US president’s meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on Friday.
Although the details of the meeting were not immediately revealed, sources close to the summit began to suggest to the international media on Saturday that Putin has proposed keeping the entire Donbas region, which represents practically all of eastern Ukraine, in exchange for halting his offensive in the southern front and ending further attacks in the rest of the country, knowing that kyiv views any type of territorial cession as intolerable.
In this context, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte; and the heads of state and government of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Keir Starmer—will participate in the meeting scheduled for Monday in Washington, flanked by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of Finland (one of Trump’s favorite interlocutors, considered a powerful mediator on these issues), Alexander Stubb.
Von der Leyen confirmed in a message posted on social media that “at the request of President Zelensky,” she will join the meeting with Trump and the Ukrainian president this Monday, as NATO confirmed shortly after in its notification regarding the presence of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.
The French president will also be present at the meeting, according to the Élysée Palace, which emphasized that it will serve to “continue the work of coordination between Europeans and the United States in order to achieve a just and lasting peace that preserves Ukraine’s vital interests and the security of Europe.”
Similarly, Merz has indicated on social media that she will attend the meeting to “exchange views with US President Trump on the state of peace efforts, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine.” The Downing Street announcement regarding Starmer’s presence indicates that the prime minister “stands ready to support this next phase of further talks and will reaffirm that his support” for Kyiv “will continue as long as necessary.”
Finally, the office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has indicated that the prime minister will also be present, accompanied by other European leaders, as well as President Stubb, according to a statement.
It’s worth remembering that Von der Leyen has a virtual meeting scheduled for this Sunday with the so-called Coalition of the Willing, which brings together some thirty countries allied with Ukraine, including Spain, at around 3:00 p.m. She indicated that she will meet with Zelensky in Brussels this Sunday afternoon in preparation for the coalition meeting later that day.
