European leaders to join Ukraine’s Zelensky for White House meeting with Trump

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (PA)

European leaders will join Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky for his crucial meeting with Donald Trump, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

The move in relation to the key White House meeting on Monday is an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the heated encounter Mr Zelensky faced when he met Mr Trump in February.

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

The European leaders’ presence at Mr Zelensky’s side, demonstrating Europe’s support for Ukraine, could potentially help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Mr Zelensky risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Mr Trump says he wants to broker with Russia.

Ms Von der Leyen, head of the European Union’s executive branch, posted on X that “at the request of President Zelensky, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow.”

In a quick succession on Sunday, a stream of European leaders also announced that they will be going.

They included French president Emmanuel Macron, the chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz, and the secretary general of the Nato military alliance Mark Rutte.

The grouped trip underscored European leaders’ determination to ensure that Europe has a voice in Mr Trump’s attempted peace-making, after the US president’s summit on Friday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin — to which Mr Zelensky was not invited.