Through three years of wartime leadership, Ukraine’s president has mostly played weak hands wisely. But his approach has fallen flat with the Trump administration.

The U.S. and Ukraine pushed divergent messages over the weekend, with Kyiv pressing for better terms to the mineral-rights deal sought by President Trump, while Washington urged Ukraine to swiftly accept the proposal already on the table.

US President Donald Trump wants to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week or next, he said on the sidelines of a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. They would talk about US access to Ukraine's raw materials,

The role of the US in any future deal is likely to be among the topics up for discussion later this week when Sir Keir Starmer heads to Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was not opposed to Europe's involvement in Russia-U.S. peace talks aimed at settling the conflict in Ukraine, but noted that Brussels had long rejected any dialogue with Moscow.