Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,271

Here is how things stand on Monday, August 18:

Politics and diplomacy

• The leaders of several European countries announced that they will accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet with United States President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
• The leaders accompanying Zelenskyy will be: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
• White House envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine that were “game-changing” at a summit with Trump in Alaska on Friday.
• Zelenskyy welcomed Witkoff’s announcement, saying it was “a historic decision that the United States is ready to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine”. However, he added that the guarantees “must be developed with Europe’s participation”.
• Macron said that European leaders would ask “to what extent” Washington would participate in the security guarantees on Monday. Macron also said that “there is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia”.
• Von der Leyen welcomed the proposal as an offer of NATO-style security guarantees from the US, adding that the “coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share”.
• Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova, in a statement shared on Telegram on Sunday, said that Macron’s claims of c