By Tom Balmforth, Max Hunder and Yuliia Dysa
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine hosted European leaders on Monday to mark three years of all-out war with Russia, while top U.S. officials stayed away in a clear illustration of President Donald Trump’s lurch towards Moscow since returning to power.
Still reeling from Trump denouncing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “dictator” and accusing him of starting the war, Kyiv said it was in the final stages of agreeing a deal with Washington to provide access to its mineral wealth.
“We hope both US and UA leaders might sign and endorse it in Washington the soonest to showcase our commitment for decades to come,” Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna wrote on X.
The deal is at the heart of Kyiv’s bid to win U.S. support, but officials have wrangled over its wording in the shadow of an extraordinary war of words between Trump and Zelenskiy, who said the U.S. leader was living in a “disinformation bubble”.
Zelenskiy refused to sign an earlier draft in which Washington sought $500 billion in natural wealth, protesting that Kyiv had received nowhere near that much U.S. aid and that the draft lacked the security guarantees Ukraine needs.
Beyond the barbs, U.S. officials opened direct talks with the Russian side in Saudi Arabia last week, shutting out Kyiv and Europe in a stunning change of policy on the war.
Zelenskiy, who has told Europe to create its own army while urging Washington to be pragmatic, welcomed a slew of European and other leaders to a summit in Kyiv to commemorate the start in 2022 of the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
“This year should be the year of the beginning of a real, lasting peace. Putin will not gift us this peace, nor will he give it to us in exchange for anything. We have to win peace with strength, wisdom and unity – with our cooperation,” he said.
The visitors included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and the leaders of Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Leaders of Albania, Britain, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey spoke by video link. There was no sign of U.S. representation.
“In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
The European leaders rallied around Zelenskiy in speeches, calling for countries on the continent to step up support for Kyiv, while some spoke of the urgent need to increase defence spending.
“We have to scale up as Europeans, we have to speed up … My guess is that we have a couple of months to take all necessary decisions. Otherwise we’ll be too late,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the summit.
‘NO STRENGTH LEFT’
Washington has made clear it will not send troops as a security guarantee coveted by Kyiv if a peace deal emerges, placing the burden on European powers that are likely to struggle without U.S. backing.
The visitors paid their respects to Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war, standing in silence before a memorial made up of flags on Kyiv’s central square. Air raid sirens sounded as they met for talks later, though no missile strike followed.
Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died and more than six million live as refugees abroad since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion by land, sea and air.
Military losses have been catastrophic, although they remain closely guarded secrets. Public Western estimates based on intelligence reports vary widely, but most say hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded on each side.
Kyiv residents spoke of defiance and exhaustion.
“For 300 years they (the Russians) couldn’t break us — they tried, but they couldn’t,” said Yevheniia Bondini, 34.
Inna Zaitseva, also 34, said: “It’s our state, it’s our land, our territory. We want the war to end as soon as possible, because we have no strength left.”
Tragedy has touched families in every corner of Ukraine, where military funerals are commonplace in major cities and far-flung villages. People are exhausted by sleepless nights of air raid sirens.
Russia launched 185 drones against Ukraine overnight but caused no significant damage, the Ukrainian air force said. Kyiv said it had hit Russia’s Ryazan refinery, continuing its campaign to degrade its enemy’s oil infrastructure.
Kyiv’s troops face a numerically superior foe as questions swirl over the future of vital U.S. military assistance. It is unclear how much European allies could fill the gap if U.S. support slows or stops.
Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine’s foreign minister from 2014 to 2019, said Zelenskiy needed to try to preserve strategic ties with Washington while enhancing relations with Europe, as well as reaching out to countries like China and India.
He said he did not think relations with Washington had reached crisis point yet, despite Trump’s outbursts.
“A tornado is not sustainable, it will pass, but it is very important not to feed it in any way.”
(Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Olena Harmash, Vitalii Hnidyi, Yurii Kovalenko; Editing by Mike Collett-White, Gareth Jones and Ros Russell)
