If anyone could convince him to change his look, it would be me,” said Viktor Anisimov, who was working to transform the Ukrainian president’s look even before it was questioned at a White House meeting.

The conditions blunt the impact of two major wins Trump achieved in his back-to-back meetings with Putin in Alaska on Friday and with Zelensky and top European leaders at the White House on Monday.

The Kremlin hasn't ruled out summits but has said they could only meet in the very final stages of clinching a peace agreement.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and other European leaders have learned a thing or two about negotiating, Trump-style. So has Vladimir Putin.

It is quite possible that Monday's meeting in the White House could prove even more crucial to the future of Ukraine - and for all of Europe's security - than last Friday's US-Russia summit in Alaska. On the surface, that Putin-Trump reunion seemed to live down to every expectation.

Zelensky wore a black military-style suit to a cordial White House meeting with Trump, contrasting February’s tense encounter.