Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent
It is quite possible that Monday’s meeting in the White House could prove even more crucial to the future of Ukraine – and for all of Europe’s security – than last Friday’s US-Russia summit in Alaska.
On the surface, that Putin-Trump reunion seemed to live down to every expectation.
There were no ceasefire, no sanctions, no grand announcements.
Were Ukraine and Europe about to get cut out of a deal cooked up behind closed doors by the world’s two foremost nuclear powers?
Not, apparently, if Ukraine and its partners could prevent it.
The presence of Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other leaders alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington is about more than making sure he does not get ambushed in the Oval Office again, in the way he did on 28 February.
They are determined to impress upon Donald Trump two things: firstly, that there can be no peace deal for Ukraine without Ukraine’s direct involvement and secondly, that it must be backed by “cast-iron” security guarantees.
