Zelenskyy to meet Trump next week after US influencer's Ukraine visit

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Donald Trump in Washington next week, according to the rightwing US influencer Laura Loomer, amid signs the White House’s traditional hostility towards Ukraine is beginning to crumble.

In an interview with Loomer, the Ukraine president said he will probably attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham and hold talks with Trump, which will take place as the latest version of the Russian sanctions bill makes its way through Congress.

Loomer interviewed Zelenskyy in the garden of the presidential palace in Kyiv – a remarkable move for the online provocateur who has previously minimised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amplified Kremlin propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers on social media.

This week, however, she performed a stunning about-turn. “Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is every day for every Ukrainian,” Loomer wrote on X. “I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say. We need to have moral clarity.”

Loomer posted a photo of her one-on-one meeting with Zelenskyy as well as a clip from her interview with him in which she asks about his infamous confrontation last year with Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, in the Oval Office. No questions were off limits, she said.

In the clip, Zelenskyy said his relationship with Trump had significantly improved and describes their brief conversation in the Vatican in April 2025 as a “historic moment”.

“We changed the relations during 15, 20 minutes,” Zelenskyy added.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump praised Loomer’s interview, calling it “Very good!!!!”. The White House later confirmed that the two leaders were scheduled to meet on Tuesday, while commentators in Kyiv said Trump’s message confirmed his administration’s once negative view of Kyiv was changing at a time when Ukrainian long-range drones are pummelling Russia.

Russia has continued to strike Ukraine, with a daytime ballistic missile attack on Friday killing ten people in the Kyiv region and injuring nearly 100 more. Another five people died when an air bomb hit the eastern city of Sloviansk.

Expressing support for US sanctions on Russia, Loomer said the Kremlin was a close ally of the Iranian regime. “Russia is funding Iran and providing them with explosives to murder US soldiers as Iran has called for President Trump’s assassination,” she wrote, arguing: “The United States needs to break Russia’s economy until they submit to peace.”

Loomer’s comments are a reversal for a woman who has spent years criticising US support for Ukraine’s defence, declaring it “a country full of Nazi apologists” – a claim used by Russia to justify its full-scale 2022 invasion – and “led by a Jihadi apologist”.

Her scepticism towards Kyiv has been shared by other major conservative influencers, including Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host. The issue became a big point of contention between more traditional Republicans, such as Mike Pence, a former vice-president, and Trump’s Maga base.

Anton Gerashchenko, a popular blogger and former Ukrainian government adviser, described Loomer’s interview with Zelenskyy as “important and necessary”. “It records a public break with Russian narratives and propaganda by part of the Maga movement. We are seeing a shift in rhetoric regarding Russian aggression,” he said.

“It is really important that @LauraLoomer is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are,” Zelenskyy’s office added this week. “It takes courage to come to Ukraine and not be deterred by Russian propaganda or air raid sirens. Thank you, Laura.”

Loomer also visited the Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the country’s most significant religious landmarks, which came under Russian drone attack in June.

In a video recorded from inside the church, she accused Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy by portraying Russia as a pro-Christian nation – a perspective many US evangelicals appear to share. “I just don’t think that you should be allowed to say that you’re protecting Christianity if you’re trying to drone strike Jesus Christ,” Loomer remarked.

Loomer also met Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, and toured a branch of McDonald’s hit repeatedly by Russian missiles. Loomer ordered a cheeseburger and sat demonstratively on an outside table in front of a wrecked building, in Kyiv’s much-bombed Lukianivka district.

On Friday, the chief rabbi wrote: “I had the honour of welcoming @LauraLoomer – whose views have a significant influence on the U.S. audience and who is well known for her close ties to President Donald Trump – to the Central Synagogue of Ukraine.

“The conversation was candid. I told her the truth about this terrible war – about the daily Russian shelling, the children and civilians killed, the destroyed cities and villages, and the pain that Ukrainian families endure every day.”