Zelensky plans to meet Putin after establishing security guarantees, while the US works to facilitate a trilateral meeting.

If anyone could convince him to change his look, it would be me,” said Viktor Anisimov, who was working to transform the Ukrainian president’s look even before it was questioned at a White House meeting.

The Ukrainian president’s outfit during his visit to the White House Monday reflects a change in approach since his disastrous meeting with US President Trump earlier this year.

During a February Oval Office meeting, President Trump and VP JD Vance abruptly confronted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president’s black suit-style jacket drew praise in a meeting with President Trump after his attire sparked a testy exchange in February.

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone strike on Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded 14 people, including a family with three young children, overnight into Wednesday, August 20.

Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”