“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wishes, or he can continue to fight”. Donald Trump on Truth writes it, a few hours after the meeting with the leader of Kiev and the European ones.
“Remember how everything started. Crimea given by Obama cannot be taken back 12 years ago without a shot having been shot and Ukraine cannot be entered NATO,” says the American president. “It is an important day in the White House: I have never had so many European leaders simultaneously, it is a great honor for me to host them,” says Trump.
Zelensky arrived in Washington for the meeting with Trump and European leaders. Zelensky himself announced it on X. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also landed in the US capital to take part in the summit.
Trump will have a bilateral meeting with Zelensky at 13:15 local time (19:15 in Italy) and then “will” greet “European leaders at 2:15 pm (20:15 Italians). A quarter of an hour later is the group photo and at 3 pm, (9 pm in Italy) the meeting. The arrival of Europeans in the White House is scheduled at 12 local time (18 Italians). The US administration reports it in a note.
At least three people died and 17 others remained wounds tonight in an attack on Russian drones on the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said Mayor Igor Terekhov specifying that there is also “a small child” among the victims.
The raid comes a few hours after the awaited meeting between the American president Donald Trump and the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington. Near the Russian border and the second largest city in the country before the invasion, Kharkiv had just been affected by ballistic missiles that had injured at least 11 people.
“We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliable.” Zelensky on X writes it up to his arrival in Washington. “Peace must be lasting – continues Kiev’s leader -. I am confident that we will defend Ukraine, we will guarantee security and our people will always be grateful to Trump, America and every partner for their support and their precious assistance. Russia must put an end to this war, which she herself has started. And I hope that our joint force with America and our European friends can force Russia to a true peace”.
“Peace must be lasting – underlines Zelensky -. Not as years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of the Donbass and Putin he used it simply as a launching pad for a new attack. Or when Ukraine were granted the so -called ‘security guarantees’ in 1994, but not “https://gazzettadodelSud.it/articoli/mondo/2025/08/18/zelensky-puo-fine-gine-ghero-rinunci-a- and Lensky-and-Arrivato-A-Washington-with-I-Leader-European-Trump-Meeting-Senza-Princiti-S1ffaa320-770C-49b8-9f26-17a779392679/. “Of course, Crimea should not have been sold then, just as the Ukrainians have not given up in Kiev, Odessa or Kharkiv after 2022. Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence.
“The fake news have been going on for three days, saying that I suffered a ‘serious defeat’ allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to have an important summit in the United States. In reality he would have liked to keep the meeting in any other place except in the USA, and the fake news know it”. The American president Donald Trump writes on his social truth. “It was an important point of dispute. If we had kept the summit elsewhere, the media managed and controlled by the Democrats would have said what terrible was that. These people are sick,” he attacked the Tycoon accusing the media and the US opposition of “even wanting crime in Washington”.
Yesterday’s day:
The disputed territories and the guarantee that what happened in February three years ago with the Russian invasion of Ukraine never repeats itself again. These are the main knots to be resolved in the top of the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky accompanied by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor Friederich Merz, the Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, the Finnish Alexander Stubc and the British Premier Keir Starmer, together with the secretary of NATO Mark Rutte.
A high -level European delegation unprecedented to avoid the debacle of the meeting in the oval study last February and to guarantee a future of peace not only to Ukraine but to all of Europe. Although, according to the Bild, two meetings could take place in Washington: one bilateral between the American president and the Ukrainian president, and then the interview enlarged to European leaders. After the top in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump drastically reduced public declarations. “Great progress with Russia, stayed tuned”, he limited himself to writing on his social media Truth during the weekend spent playing golf in Virginia. Instead, his closest councilors, Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio, who participated next to him in the summit with the Tsar in Anchorage, spoke. The special correspondent assured that the leader of the Kremlin agreed to provide unprecedented guarantees, “solid”, for the safety of Ukraine and Europe, a move that according to him can represent a turning point in negotiations towards peace. In particular, Witkoff has mentioned a type of protection for Kiev on the model of article 5 of NATO, the one that establishes that an armed attack against a member of the Atlantic alliance is considered an attack on all the others. “We have come to an agreement that the United States and the other European nations could actually offer a formulation similar to Article 5,” said Trump’s envoy in an interview with the CNN explaining that it could be the only alternative to the entrance of Ukraine in NATO, to which Putin continues to oppose firmly.
Zelensky said he was satisfied with this step forward on security guarantees and thanked the United States for helping to achieve this. But for Kiev’s leader it is not enough: “It is important that America agrees to collaborate with Europe to provide guarantees to Ukraine. We are very grateful to the United States and the President for this signal, which is important for everyone in Europe. It is a significant change, but there are no details on how it will work and what the role of America will be, what the role of Europe will be, what the EU can do,” he asked. As for the territories in the viewfinder of Russia, Witkoff revealed that the tsar would be willing to make some concession on “five regions” Ukraine, but did not provide other details. He probably referred to Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzia and Crimea but there are those who think he was talking about Sumy or Kharkiv instead of the peninsula attached from Moscow in 2014. Zelensky for his part insisted that the “Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give in territories or exchange Territories “https://gazzettadelSud.it/articoli/mondo/2025/08/18/zelensky-puo-fine-fine-guerra-rinunci-a-crimea- and Zelensky-E-Arrivato-A-Washington-with-I-Leader-European-Trump-Meeting-Senza-Princiti-S1A320-770C-49b8-9f26-17a779392679/. “Since The territorial question is so important – he added – it should only be discussed by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia in the framework of the trilateral summit “. Shared position also by French President Emmanuel Macron who, however, proposed to expand the trilateral also to Europe.
In the background, that non-ceased the fire that Ukrainian, old continent and the same Commander-in-Chief until a few hours earlier expected to obtain from the summit in the military base in Alaska. For Marco Rubio “he is still on the table”. But, he explained, “the main purpose is peace, not a truce”. The American secretary of state also warned that there is the possibility that “this war continues, that people continue to die”. In this case, even the United States – like Europe – are ready to impose