Donald Trump to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at NATO summit

The US President appears to be moving on to his next world peace endeavour, scheduling a meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

Fresh from the ceasefire brokered between Iran and Israel - which appears to have been broken a matter of hours after it came into effect - US President Donald Trump is planning on meeting Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, a senior source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.

After much to-ing and fro-ing on Zelensky’s part about whether the trip to the Netherlands would be worth it, he has confirmed he will attend the two-day summit alongside the leaders of the 32 NATO members.

Zelensky has been a central figure at recent summits but given his fractious relationship with Trump, the war-time leader has not been invited to the main working session when the summit kicks off on Tuesday local time.

“The teams are finalising the details” of the meeting, the source told AFP, adding that the talks between the two leaders were scheduled for the “early afternoon”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is understood to be seeking the meeting to discuss the purchase of a defence package. Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images

The ceasefire US President Donald Trump brokered between Iran and Israel was broken within a matter of hours. Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The source added that the discussion would focus on Ukraine’s “purchase of a defence package, a large part of which consists of air defence systems”.

The leaders would also discuss more “sanctions against Russia, and a price cap on oil”, the source added.

Ukraine and its allies have sought to lower an existing oil cap imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine more than three years ago, from $60 to $45, to dent the Kremlin war chest.

Trump so far has frustrated Western allies by refusing to impose new sanctions on Russia despite President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to a Ukraine ceasefire.

Trump and Zelensky during their explosive Oval Office meeting in April. Picture: SAUL LOEB / AFP

In the lead up to his re-election, Trump famously claimed that he would end the war in Ukraine “in one day, 24 hours”. After brokering the short-lived ceasefire between Iran and Israel, he may be looking to advance plans to do the same in Ukraine.
Since their explosive encounter in the White House in April, Trump and Zelensky met briefly in Rome where they both attended Pope Francis’ funeral. They were also set to meet on the sidelines of the G7 last week but Trump left early.
The two leaders align in their desire to see other nations increase spending on defence, with Zelensky saying this week that the NATO countries’ target of spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035 is too slow. He warned that in the decade between now and 2035, Russia could very well strike a NATO member.
“This is slow because we believe that starting from 2030 Putin can have significantly greater capabilities,” he told Sky News in the UK, “Today Ukraine is holding him up, he has no time to drill the army and they are all getting annihilated and wiped out at the battlefield.”

“Ten years is a very long time he will have a new army ready by then.”
When asked if he thinks that Russia could strike within the next five years, Zelensky replied: “Soon, I believe soon.”
He added however, that it would more like be a matter of years than months as Russia would still need to train and ready its army.

Originally published as Donald Trump to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at NATO summit