Touching on Ukrainian anxieties that a direct meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin could marginalize Kyiv and European interests, Zelenskyy said: "Any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work."

It took Ukraine’s president time and effort to not only repair his diplomatic relations with the Trump administration, but also to prove that no one wants the end of Russia’s all-out war more than Ukraine does.