Red carpet or not, Zelensky faces an uphill struggle for Trump’s attention

It seems implausible that any world leader could be greeted with the deference that Trump showed Vladimir Putin as the two men met at a US military base in Alaska for their high-stakes summit on Friday.

In his first meeting with a US president since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin was afforded a red carpet, a US guard of honour, a military fly-past and a ride in the presidential limousine.

Zelensky, by contrast, was bullied and blamed for the war by Trump and his vice president in the Oval Office in February. He arrives with more support today – seven European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer will join him at a White House working lunch – but there is also more at stake: at the weekend, Trump sided with Putin in arguing for an immediate peace deal without a ceasefire first.

On Friday, as the Russian leader descended from his jet and strode to meet Trump, the US president applauded him before offering a warm handshake.

Putin lapped up the pageantry from his host but gave little or nothing in return. Ahead of the summit, Trump had declared that he would know “within the first two minutes” if the Russian leader was ready to make a deal and end the war in Ukraine.

In the event, it took three hours of face-to-face talks for the president to accept that Putin would not give him the ceasefire that Trump had demanded. After the afternoon session was abruptly cancelled, the president who views himself as the ultimate dealmaker admitted at a hastily rescheduled press conference that there was “no deal” on Ukraine.

The president insisted that “great progress” had been made and again hailed his “fantastic relationship” with Putin. After days of frenzied buildup, however, there was no escaping the mood of anticlimax as the two leaders departed without taking questions and without a breakthrough towards ending the brutal three-year conflict.

That alone was unusual for Trump, who is always eager to court the press and extol his latest deal. His swift departure underlined that there was little to talk about. Even Fox News suggested that Trump had been “steamrolled” by Putin and acknowledged that the mood in the room was “not good”.

But the muted conclusion to the summit, with Trump leaving Alaska empty-handed, was met with some relief in Ukraine and Europe. Ukraine and its allies had feared Putin would use the meeting to manipulate Trump, persuading him to strong-arm Kyiv into accepting a deal on Russia’s terms, surrendering swathes of the country.

Painful choices still lie ahead for Zelensky, but Ukraine and its neighbours do at least get to make their case to Trump again.

For Zelensky, that means a return to the White House six months after his disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump and vice-president JD Vance that appeared to derail American ­support for Kyiv.

It has taken months of painstaking diplomacy and grovelling from Europe to rebuild from that catastrophe and persuade Trump that Putin was not interested in peace. Zelensky said he was “grateful for the invitation” back to the White House, adding that he and Trump would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”

European leaders issued a statement lauding “President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine”. But they urged the president to bring Zelensky into a trilateral summit with Putin, demanding “ironclad security guarantees” for Ukraine and urging renewed sanctions on Russia to force the Kremlin to the table.

Trump blew through his own diplomatic red lines in his haste to meet Putin, however. An interview with Fox News after the press conference underscored the sway the Russian leader exerts over the president.

Trump had warned of “serious consequences” for Russia if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. But post-summit, he dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying he did not need to think about punishing Moscow “right now”.

Instead, brushing off the air of failure, Trump enthused about his relationship with Putin. “I think the meeting was a 10,” he told Fox anchor Sean Hannity. “In the sense we got along great, and it’s good when two big powers get along, especially when they’re nuclear powers. We’re number one and they’re number two in the world.”

The president claimed that he and Putin had “largely agreed” on a series of land swaps, suggesting that the White House is ready to recognise Russian control of territory it holds on the battlefield.

Zelensky has rejected any move to impose a settlement on Ukraine.

Underscoring how sharply Trump’s mood can shift, the president dropped another bombshell when announcing that he now wishes to scrap the demand for a ceasefire altogether, instead going “directly to a peace agreement” in Ukraine.

That would represent a huge concession to Putin, who has sidestepped calls for a ceasefire, playing for time as Russian troops advance on the battlefield. Red carpet or not, Zelensky faces an uphill battle to change Trump’s mind this week.

Photograph by Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images; Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty