Zelensky huddles with European leaders in London as Kremlin praises Trump’s new security strategy
By Kara Fox, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Tim Lister, Billy Stockwell, CNN
(CNN) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with European leaders in London on Monday, in a show of solidarity, after US President Donald Trump accused him of not reading the latest proposal to end the war and as the Kremlin praised America’s new harder posture towards Europe.
Speaking before his arrival at Downing Street on Monday afternoon, Zelensky demonstrated his knowledge of the plan, reiterating his officials’ comments from the weekend, who said that elements of the US proposal required further discussion, including on “sensitive issues” such as security guarantees for the country and control over its eastern regions.
Trump had criticized Zelensky on Sunday after talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over the weekend in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security guarantees, territorial issues and continued concern that the US proposal tilts in Russia’s favor.
Trump said that Russia would prefer to have all of Ukraine and that he believes Moscow is “fine” with the peace plan, but “I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it.”
On Monday, Zelensky said that the US had yet to reach agreement on the future of Ukraine’s Donbas, which includes the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
He said Kyiv also wanted a separate agreement on security guarantees from Western allies, above all the US. “There is one question I — and all Ukrainians — want to get an answer to: If Russia again starts a war, what will our partners do,” Zelensky said. “There are questions that concern Europe — and we cannot decide for Europe. We need to discuss with Europe Ukraine’s membership in the EU, which is also part of security guarantees.”
Zelensky added that he was ready to fly to the US “if the president is ready for such a meeting.”
Trump’s remarks came as the Kremlin welcomed his administration’s new national security strategy, a foreign policy realignment that adopts an unprecedentedly confrontational posture toward Europe.
The US security strategy document, in contrast to past administrations, has dropped language that described Russia as a threat. The new document says European nations regard Moscow as “an existential threat,” and casts Washington as the central broker in re-establishing “conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to applaud the strategy and praised the American president, calling him “strong.”
“The adjustments we are seeing, I would say, are, in many ways, consistent with our vision,” Peskov said, adding: “Perhaps one can hope that this may be a modest guarantee that it will be possible to continue working constructively together to find a peaceful settlement for Ukraine, at the very least.”
For European leaders, the timing is unsettling: the US is steering the Ukraine peace talks just as its posture toward Europe hardens, raising fears that this shift could influence negotiations at a critical moment.
Europe to ‘take stock’ of situation
Those issues are on the table in London on Monday, where Zelensky is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The European leaders will “take stock together of the situation and the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the American mediation,” Macron said.
Talks in Miami between US and Ukrainian negotiators came to a halt Saturday with no breakthroughs, Ukrainian officials said, noting that key questions went unanswered.
After three days of talks, “difficult issues remain,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishyna said Saturday, “but both sides continue working to shape realistic and acceptable solutions.”
Territory and security guarantees have long been the central obstacles to any potential settlement. Kyiv maintains that a just end to the war must include dependable security commitments and would not require it to cede additional territory.
As the diplomatic to-and-fro continues, Russia launched one of its largest barrages of drones and missiles in months across Ukraine, killing at least seven people over the weekend, according to a CNN tally of local authority figures. More than a dozen more were injured.
In the past week, Russia has launched over 1,600 attack drones, around 1,200 guided aerial bombs and nearly 70 missiles against Ukraine, Zelensky said Sunday. He said the primary targets of the strikes were the infrastructure “that keeps everyday life going.”
The strikes targeted energy infrastructure in various regions over the weekend, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy. Consumers in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions were without power on Saturday, the ministry said. And on Sunday, power cut schedules were introduced in all regions of Ukraine, including in Kyiv, where residents of the capital were without electricity for about 12 hours.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that it had hit the Ryazan oil refinery in western Russia, one of the country’s largest refineries, in an overnight attack. Moscow did not immediately respond to the claims.
‘Hybrid warfare’
Meanwhile, investigations are underway in Ireland and France after two more incidents this week involving unidentified drones flying close to the coastlines of each country, marking the latest in a string of unexplained sightings in several European countries since September. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called the spate of drone incursions “hybrid warfare.”
Early last week, several drones were seen flying off the coast of Dublin, just as a plane carrying Zelensky for a visit with the Irish premiere was about to land.
CNN’s Jessie Yeung, Max Saltman, Jennifer Hansler and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting.
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