James Stephens
President Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of this week's NATO summit in Ankara, the White House confirmed on July 5, as Washington tries to jumpstart peace efforts that have gone nowhere for months while pushing European allies to shoulder more of their own defense costs.
Why Trump Will Meet Zelenskyy Now
The sit down, scheduled for July 8, follows a pair of phone calls Trump held a day earlier with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly confirmed the meeting, and senior officials briefing reporters said it builds directly on those conversations. One official described a president increasingly impatient with a war now in its fifth year, saying Trump feels "a real sense of urgency" to end it, given what the official called the "tremendous death" still occurring daily.
Zelenskyy, writing on X after his call with Trump, said he had updated the American president on conditions along the front and that the two agreed to keep talking in Ankara. "There is a real prospect to put an end to this war, and America's resolve is decisive," he wrote. The Ukrainian leader also cautioned that intelligence points to Russia readying another large scale air assault, coming on the heels of a deadly barrage on the night of July 1 and 2. "This is in the spirit of Putin, right after America's Independence Day and before the NATO summit in Ankara," Zelenskyy said in a video address on July 5. "Russia wants to add to the evil and kill people."
The Kremlin's own account of the Trump Putin call, which lasted roughly 90 minutes, said Trump reaffirmed his willingness to keep mediating while Putin stuck to Moscow's insistence that any settlement reflect what the Kremlin called its "fundamental approach" to resolving the conflict. Russia continues to demand recognition of its control over occupied areas in eastern Ukraine, a concession Kyiv has repeatedly refused to make.
A Front Line That Has Barely Moved in Months
"The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months, and neither side is making a lot of progress," one senior US official told reporters during a background briefing. Despite continued long range strikes from both sides, the official said the underlying military picture has changed little, even accounting for recent Ukrainian gains and drone strikes deep inside Russian territory.
"It's a lot easier to play defense than it is to play offense," the official said, adding that while Ukraine has made small territorial gains in some areas and Russia in others, "the line of contact has been frozen over the last couple of months." The official summed up the administration's position simply: "What the president supports is ending the war."
That reading lines up with remarks Vice President JD Vance made in an interview published July 5 by The Sunday Times, in which he argued Ukraine has done more damage to Russian forces through defensive fighting and long range drone strikes than through any major offensive push. Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil facilities, fuel depots and military infrastructure in recent months, part of an effort to squeeze Moscow economically even as ground fighting settles into a grinding stalemate.
Burden Sharing Tops the Ankara Agenda
Ukraine will not be the only subject on the table. Administration officials made clear that NATO burden sharing sits at the center of this summit's agenda. US Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker said member states have pledged close to $139 billion in additional defense spending since last year's gathering, with roughly half of that expected to flow toward American made weapons, munitions and equipment.
Whitaker singled out Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states and Germany for stepping up spending, but said
Holly Herrera
Edward Byrd