Trump officials defended the president’s peace push after meeting Putin, calling progress “game-changing” ahead of Zelensky’s visit to Washington.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who sat in on the meetings with Mr. Putin at the American air base outside of Anchorage, disputed the idea that the Europeans were coming as a posse to protect Mr. Zelensky from a repeat of the February shouting match.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Monday that a Russian attack hours before his high-stakes meeting with President Trump at the White House was “demonstrative and cynical.” “This was a demonstrative and cynical Russian strike.