Zelenskyy seeks Trump meeting at G7 in Canada

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working to arrange a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at this month’s Group of Seven summit in Canada, Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said.

One of the aims of a visit to Washington earlier this week by a delegation from Kyiv was to prepare for a potential Trump-Zelenskyy meeting at the G7 gathering set for June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Alberta, Yermak said on a national broadcast late Friday.

“Our visit was part of the preparation, including for what I believe will be a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, which is taking place in 10 days’ time,” Yermak said. “This was a key step in preparing for this conversation.” 

The Ukrainian delegation also held discussions in Washington on continuing military aid to Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion, Yermak said.

“There is a shared understanding on this issue; we need to keep working,” Yermak said. “President Zelenskyy clearly outlined our position: Under the signed agreement on economic cooperation, we are also ready to buy some of the equipment, especially missile defense systems, etc.,” Yermak said.

The Ukrainian visit came as U.S. lawmakers are weighing sweeping sanctions measures aimed at Russia and its biggest energy customers. The delegation met with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, who are pushing for a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate that would impose steep tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy resources. 

“We hope this new sanctions package will be adopted,” Yermak said. “But even the process that should begin in the Senate next week will be a very important signal — because everyone understands what it’s about. It’s quite clearly about reducing Russia’s revenues from energy exports, primarily oil,” he said.

Russia hit Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday with a large barrage of drones and missiles, killing at least three people and wounding 21 others, local officials said.

The assault early Saturday — the latest in near daily widescale attacks by Moscow — included glide bombs that have become part of a fierce Russian onslaught in the all-out war, which began in February 2022, the Associated Press reported.

The intensity of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks has further depressed hopes that the warring sides could reach a peace deal anytime soon — especially after Kyiv embarrassed the Kremlin with an audacious drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, pushed back against Trump’s characterization of the war between Russia and Ukraine as like “two young children fighting like crazy.”

“We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park. He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with the ABC program “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Zelenskyy went on to stress that “it’s not about President Trump; it’s about any person who is not here in the country, who … cannot feel fully and understand this pain.”