After criticizing Trump, Zelensky attends the European Union summit today

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to join European Union leaders on Friday, the last day of the EU summit in Brussels.

Zelensky, who actually arrived in Brussels yesterday, Thursday, received an outpouring of support from European Union leaders in response to repeated criticism from Washington.

"You are not alone," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the X website, shortly after Zelensky's plane landed in the Belgian capital.

US President Donald Trump had called for Zelensky to be replaced, announcing plans to purchase hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel from Russia. According to Kiev, the United States reduced the provision of intelligence information to Ukraine and restricted the operation of the Starlink satellite Internet service.

However, EU leaders are not expected to make wide-ranging commitments at the Brussels summit beyond words of encouragement.

The European Union had approved a loan program to support Kiev worth 90 billion euros ($100.8 billion) for the years 2026 and 2027, amid calls for Ukraine's international allies to increase their financing.

Turning to internal affairs, European Union leaders are scheduled to discuss the bloc's migration policies after tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish-controlled enclave of Ceuta in North Africa at the end of last July. The agenda also includes a discussion of the bloc's defense capabilities and security issues, in addition to the situation in the Middle East.

Trump described the Ukrainian president as a more difficult negotiating partner than Russian Vladimir Putin, portraying him as an obstacle to ending the war in Ukraine.

In an interview with the conservative American network Newsmax on Thursday, Trump hinted that a peace agreement would only be possible without the Ukrainian leader. “Zelensky is not a good person for us to deal with,” he said.

"They don't want a settlement. He says he wants a settlement, but he doesn't. No, I'm not a big fan of Zelensky," Trump said, adding that he expected the war, which began with Russia's all-out invasion in February 2022, to end soon.

Trump said he believed both leaders wanted peace but found Zelensky's negotiation more difficult than Putin's.

Ukraine relies heavily on US support, including air defense intelligence and Starlink satellite internet service. Zelensky has complained about gaps in intelligence sharing and internet restrictions, which he said have caused Ukrainian drone operations to fail.