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.

Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone strike on Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded 14 people, including a family with three young children, overnight into Wednesday, August 20.

The Ukrainian president’s outfit during his visit to the White House Monday reflects a change in approach since his disastrous meeting with US President Trump earlier this year.

The Ukrainian president’s black suit-style jacket drew praise in a meeting with President Trump after his attire sparked a testy exchange in February.

Trump is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with several European leaders, in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.

President Trump seeks to broker a meeting of the two leaders to end Europe’s most destructive war in generations.