The two leaders started their day on Monday (early Tuesday AEDT) by participating in a more than two-hour virtual meeting with fellow leaders of the Group of Seven economies to discuss the war.

Trump also has made demands for territory — Greenland, Canada, Gaza and the Panama Canal — as well as precious rare earth minerals from Ukraine.

A little more than a month into his second term, the “America First” president has cast an enormous shadow over what veteran US diplomats and former government officials had regarded as America’s calming presence of global stability and continuity.

Despite some notable hiccups, the military, economic and moral power of the United States has dominated the post-World War II era, most notably after the Cold War came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

All of that, some fear, may be lost if Trump gets his way and the US abandons the principles under which the United Nations and numerous other international bodies were founded.

“The only conclusion you can draw is that 80 years of policy in standing up against aggressors has just been blown up without any sort of discussion or reflection,” said Ian Kelly, a US ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administration and now a professor at Northwestern University.

“I’m discouraged for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is that I had taken some encouragement at the beginning from the repeated references to ‘peace through strength.

“This is not peace through strength — this is peace through surrender.”

Visits start on anniversary of war in Ukraine

The Republican president was hosting Macron on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), the three-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and set to hold a meeting on Thursday (Friday AEDT) with another key European leader, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

On the minerals deal, Zelenskyy initially bristled, saying it was short on security guarantees for Ukraine.

He said Sunday on X that “we are making great progress” but noted that “we want a good economic deal that will be part of a true security guarantee system for Ukraine”.

Trump administration officials say they expect to reach a deal this week that would tie the US and Ukrainian economies closer together — the last thing that Russia wants.

UN rejects US resolution in win for Ukraine

Another clash played out as the US failed to get the United Nations General Assembly to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Moscow’s aggression.

The assembly approved a duelling European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

It marks a setback for the Trump administration in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion.

But it also shows some diminished support for Ukraine, whose resolution passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions. That’s lower than previous votes, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression.

The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favour of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. They refused, and then the assembly added language to the US proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in violation of the UN Charter.

The vote on the amended US resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine and Australia voting “yes”, the US abstaining and Russia voting “no”.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said her country was exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the UN Charter’s requirement that countries respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations.

“As we mark three years of this devastation — Russia’s full invasion against Ukraine — we call on all nations to stand firm and to take … the side of the charter, the side of humanity and the side of just and lasting peace, peace through strength,” she said.

US deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea said multiple previous UN resolutions condemning Russia and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war”, which “has now dragged on for far too long and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine and Russia and beyond”.

“What we need is a resolution marking the commitment from all UN member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Shea said.

High-stakes talks between European and US leaders

Macron said he intended to tell Trump it’s in the joint interest of Americans and Europeans not to show weakness to Putin during US-led negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He also suggested he’ll make the case that how Trump handles Putin could have enormous ramifications for US dealings with China, the United States’ most significant economic and military competitor.

“You can’t be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest,” Macron said on social media.

“How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?'”

Yet, Trump has shown a considerable measure of respect for the Russian leader. Trump said this month he’d like to see Russia rejoin what is now the Group of Seven major economies. Russia was suspended from the G8 after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Trump dismissed Zelenskyy’s complaints about Ukraine and Europe not being included in the opening of US-Russia talks, suggesting he’s been negotiating “with no cards, and you get sick of it”.

Putin, on the other hand, wants to make a deal, Trump argued Friday.

“He doesn’t have to make a deal. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country,” Trump added.

The deference to Putin has left some longtime diplomats worried.

“The administration should consider going in a different direction because this isn’t going to work,” said Robert Wood, a retired career diplomat who served in multiple Republican and Democratic administrations.

“Let’s not kid ourselves: Russia started this war, and trying to rewrite the narrative isn’t going to serve the best interests of the US or our allies.”

Western leaders visit Kyiv and pledge military support

Ukraine on Monday marked the bleakest anniversary yet of its war against the Russia invasion, with the country’s forces under severe pressure on the battlefield on top of the Trump administration’s apparent embrace of Russian policy.

The three-year milestone drew more than a dozen Western leaders to Kyiv for commemorative events in a conspicuous show of support.

They warned of the war’s wider implications for global security and vowed to keep providing billions of dollars in support for Ukraine as uncertainty deepens over the U.S. commitment to help. Washington did not send any senior official to the occasion.

The fourth year of fighting could be pivotal as Trump uses his return to office to press for a peace deal.

World security is at stake in talks over how the war ends, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned.

“The autocrats around the world are watching very carefully whether there’s any impunity if you violate international borders or invade your neighbour, or if there is true deterrence,” she said.