Through three years of wartime leadership, Ukraine’s president has mostly played weak hands wisely. But his approach has fallen flat with the Trump administration.

The U.S. and Ukraine pushed divergent messages over the weekend, with Kyiv pressing for better terms to the mineral-rights deal sought by President Trump, while Washington urged Ukraine to swiftly accept the proposal already on the table.

For Ukrainians, Feb. 24 was a day to remember, without major ceremony, what has been lost in the three years since Russia’s invasion.

Credit: Office of the President of Ukraine/Cover Images Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was joined by EU leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a memorial event in the Maidan Square marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Monday (24February2025).