Since President Trump’s return to the White House this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently pursued every opportunity to engage with the U.S. leader, aiming to secure his unwavering support for Kyiv’s position.
This Tuesday presents another such critical occasion. Mr. Zelensky will meet with Mr. Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as confirmed by Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Monday.
For Mr. Zelensky, this one-on-one session with Mr. Trump could yield more substantial outcomes than his address to the General Assembly. The global forum has seen Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine gradually recede from its top agenda items over three years of conflict, with this year’s debates expected to focus heavily on other pressing issues like the wars in Gaza and Sudan.
Their last encounter, held at the White House last month, concluded with a significant win for Mr. Zelensky. He successfully secured a U.S. commitment to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine, an essential component of any future peace agreement designed to prevent further Russian aggression.
Following that meeting, Ukraine and its European allies have been diligently working to formalize the details of these guarantees. However, America’s precise role in this framework remains undefined.
Mr. Trump has indicated that Washington might offer air support to European troops deployed in Ukraine as part of a postwar settlement, though he has not elaborated on the specifics. Analysts suggest that this lack of clarity has hindered Kyiv and its European partners from publicly announcing the guarantees or advancing to the subsequent phase of peace negotiations with Russia.
“These matters will be thoroughly discussed in our bilateral meeting in New York,” Mr. Zelensky informed reporters on Friday. “My objective is to understand how close we are to ensuring these security guarantees genuinely address our needs.”
Despite Mr. Zelensky’s persistent efforts to sway Mr. Trump, the American president has shown little inclination to intensify pressure on Russia. He has repeatedly delayed or failed to meet self-imposed deadlines for implementing new economic sanctions against Moscow. None of the measures Mr. Trump alluded to during his summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage have yet come to fruition.
The talks between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump will take place one day after a contentious United Nations Security Council meeting. During this session, several NATO nations accused Russia of violating their airspace and issued stern warnings against any further provocative actions.
Both Britain and Poland declared their readiness to confront any additional Russian incursions into NATO airspace. This announcement follows an incident nearly two weeks prior when the alliance shot down Russian drones over Poland. Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, explicitly cautioned that any future unauthorized entry into its airspace, whether deliberate or accidental, would be met with force. “If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on NATO territory, please don’t come here to whine about it,” Mr. Sikorski asserted.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, countered these accusations, dismissing Europe’s claims as “spreading blatant lies.”
The Security Council meeting was convened by Estonia after Russian fighter jets were detected flying through its airspace on Friday. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, has denied these claims.
Just days before, Russian drones had also entered the airspace of Romania, another NATO member.
Mr. Zelensky further announced that the American and Ukrainian first ladies would also meet, with the pressing issue of Ukrainian children forcibly taken by Russia at the forefront of their agenda. Last month, Melania Trump had personally appealed to Mr. Putin regarding the welfare of these children in a private letter.
Olena Zelenska, Mr. Zelensky’s wife, has been a prominent international advocate for the return of these children. Mr. Zelensky revealed that a summit dedicated to the repatriation of kidnapped children would be organized during the U.N. meetings this week.
A significant portion of Mr. Zelensky’s time in New York is also expected to be dedicated to securing additional funding for the acquisition and domestic production of weapons.
Under Mr. Trump’s leadership, the United States has ceased direct weapon donations to Kyiv. This policy shift has left the Ukrainian government scrambling to find funding to bolster its domestic arms production and procure necessary military equipment. Kyiv’s ambitious goal is to secure $1 billion per month to purchase heavy weaponry from the United States.