The meeting will take place on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, days after the U.S. president blamed Ukraine for starting the war Moscow launched in February 2022.
The meeting comes as the EU’s College of Commissioners announced it was heading to Ukraine to discuss the bloc’s security after top European leaders were left out of Trump’s talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia Feb. 18.
Zelenskyy, who confirmed at a press conference Wednesday that he was expecting several heads of state and EU leaders in Kyiv Feb. 24, is trying to rally allies after Trump called him incompetent and a “dictator without elections” who had duped the U.S. into coughing up tens of billions of dollars in military support.
Since Trump’s tirade, European leaders have pushed back — while Ukrainian politicians, officials and soldiers have also leapt to their president’s defense.
Several people involved in organizing the meeting said they could not disclose the names of the leaders attending for security reasons. When contacted, neither Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands nor Germany answered a request for comment about their potential attendance. The Czech Republic said it wouldn’t send a leader.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to travel to Washington next week, U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday. Former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal confirmed he would be in Kyiv for the week, his spokesperson said.