As European leaders descend on Washington DC, the bombs are still falling on Ukraine.
Attacks on major Ukrainian cities killed at least 10 people just hours before President Zelensky was expected to press his case in Washington against a quick deal to end Moscow's war.
Against this backdrop is the very real spectre of Donald Trump surrendering Ukraine to Vladimir Putin.
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This fear has crystallised following the 47th President's historic summit in Alaska on Saturday, which ended without a deal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer scolded Trump following his high-stakes meeting summit, accusing him of “selling out” Ukraine.
Others vehemently disagreed with this assessment. In his weekly column for GB News, US commentator Lee Cohen defended the decision to host Putin, writing that Trump 'dared to bend the course of history' amid an absence of European leadership.
How did we get here?
From public White House bust-ups to Trump's obsequious remarks about Putin, GB News has taken a look back at all the moments that foreshadow today's talks in Washington.
2022
Donald Trump delivers remarks at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference
|GETTY
On February 24, Vladimir Putin told the people of Russia his goal was to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine as Kremlin troops stormed the border.
Just two days earlier, Trump appeared on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show and praised Putin’s strategy as "smart" and "savvy".
Speaking at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in Orlando on February 26, Trump argued that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News on April 13, Trump acknowledged Putin was struggling in Ukraine but still avoided directly condemning him.
"I’m surprised. I thought he [Putin] was negotiating when he sent troops to the border... I think he’s having a lot of trouble."
During a rally in Alaska on July 9, Trump claimed that Putin "changed" and became more aggressive after his presidency ended.
"I think he [Putin] changed. It was a different Putin. I got along with him very well. I say he’s smart. He is smart... but I thought he was negotiating when he moved troops to the border," he told the crowd.
In an interview with John Fredericks Radio on September 1, Trump said the US should push for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
“This should never have happened. Russia needs to negotiate peace now, and the US should be the one to broker it," he said.
In an interview with One America News on December 17, Trump appeared to make his strongest admission to date that Putin had made a mistake by invading Ukraine.
"He made a mistake. In his mind, he didn’t think it was a mistake. But he’s got a big problem. I think he’s having a harder time than he thought."
However, critics pointed out that he still avoided calling Putin an aggressor and framed the war as a misjudgment rather than an act of unprovoked brutality.
2023
Trump takes part in a town hall moderated by Fox News broadcaster Sean Hannity
|GETTY
On January 27, 2023, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social: "IF I WERE PRESIDENT, THE RUSSIA/UKRAINE WAR WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, BUT EVEN NOW, IF PRESIDENT, I WOULD BE ABLE TO NEGOTIATE AN END TO THIS HORRIBLE AND RAPIDLY ESCALATING WAR WITHIN 24 HOURS. SUCH A TRAGIC WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE!!!"
In a Radio Interview with Hugh Hewitt on February 27, Trump suggested that an end to war would require tough compromises on both sides.
He said: "That would mean saying things to Putin and saying things to Zelensky that they’re not gonna want to hear and getting them into a room and getting it done."
In a March interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump claimed he had deterred Putin from invading Ukraine during his presidency, implying that the war wouldn’t have happened on his watch in a thinly veiled swipe at then-President Joe Biden.
"Putin would have never gone into Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it, I said 'better not do it'. And he wouldn’t have, we had a very friendly conversation about it: I said, ‘Hey, Vladimir, you can’t go into Ukraine," he told Fox News.
During the CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire on May 10, Trump suggested Europe needed to step up and could not rely solely on America to guarantee Ukrainian security.
"We’re giving away so much equipment, we don’t have ammunition for ourselves right now," he said, reiterating his pledge to end the war in 24 hours should win the election.
2024
Trump appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience
| YOUTUBE/JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCEIn an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump reiterated his claim that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (ongoing since February 2022) would not have occurred under his presidency.
Speaking to donors at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser on April 12, Trump claimed he had explicitly warned Putin against invading Ukraine during his presidency.
During a nearly two-hour conversation with Elon Musk on his platform X in August, Trump repeated this claim, telling the tech mogul: "I told him [Putin] things that I would do. And he said, ‘no way’, and I said, ‘way.'"
In a wide-ranging three-hour interview with Joe Rogan in October, Trump repeated his assertion Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he had been president.
"I said, 'Vladimir, you're not going in,'" he told Rogan, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I used to talk to him all the time.
On October 14, Trump called during his first presidency, that he "(got) along very well with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," implying that the Russian leader often talked about his ambition to control Ukraine.
The comments came three weeks before the U.S. presidential election, which can have a profound impact on Washington's support for Ukraine's struggle against Russian aggression.
"I get along very well with Putin. I got; I fully understand what's happening," the Republican candidate for U.S. presidency said at a town hall event in Oaks, Pennsylvania, regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"It (Ukraine) was the apple of his eye; he used to talk about it. But I said, 'You're not going in,' and he wasn't going in."
After his election win in November, President-elect Trump said that Putin had expressed his interest in a meeting regarding the war with Ukraine.
"President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible," Trump said during his remarks at Turning Point’s AmericaFest convention on December 22.
"So we have to wait for this, but we have to end that war. That war is horrible, horrible."
2025
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, hold a joint press conference
|KREMLIN PRESS OFFICE VIA GETTY
Trump issued a stern warning to Putin on January 22 of this year demanding an end to the war in Ukraine.
He stated that if Russia did not comply, it would face severe consequences, including increased taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on Russian goods sold to the United States and allied countries.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” he wrote.
In a significant policy shift on February 12, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders was "an unrealistic objective" and that attempting to regain all territory "will only prolong the war".
He suggested that Ukraine must have "robust security guarantees", but NATO membership was not considered a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.
Later that day, Trump posted on Truth Social that he'd had a "highly productive phone call" with Putin, during which they agreed to "have our respective teams start negotiations immediately".
Trump also spoke with Zelensky, he said, assuring him of collaborative efforts to "stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace".
On February 18, American and Russian delegations, led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, respectively, met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to develop a framework for further peace negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine.
The decision to go over the heads of Zelensky and Western allies caused outrage and dismay in Europe.
On February 19, Trump criticised Ukrainian President Zelensky on Truth Social, referring to him as a "dictator without elections" and suggesting that Ukraine was to blame for the ongoing conflict. He wrote: "You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."
Zelensky hit back at these remarks, accusing Trump of being influenced by Russian disinformation.
On February 20, Special Envoy Keith Kellogg met with President Zelensky in Kyiv to discuss the ongoing conflict and potential peace negotiations. Despite the meeting, tensions remained high due to previous criticisms exchanged between Trump and Zelensky.
The next day, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that a potential meeting between Trump and Putin was contingent upon progress toward ending the war in Ukraine.
Rubio emphasised that the timing of such a meeting depended on Russia's commitment to ending the conflict initiated by its invasion of Ukraine three years prior.