European leaders in Kyiv to mark three years of war

Ukraine has hosted European leaders to mark three years of all-out war with Russia, while top US officials stayed away in a clear illustration of President Donald Trump's lurch towards Moscow since returning to power.

Still reeling from Trump falsely calling President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a "dictator", Kyiv said it was in the final stages of reaching a deal with Washington to provide US access to its mineral wealth.

After meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Trump said Zelenskiy could travel to Washington this week or next to seal the minerals agreement, which he called "very close," and suggested that the war in Ukraine could end within weeks. But he did not elaborate.

"Our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible, and ultimately a permanent peace," Trump said during a joint press conference with Macron.

Trump stopped short of saying, however, that the minerals agreement would contain explicit US security guarantees that Ukraine has sought and put the onus on Europe for the "central role" in assuring the country's long-term security.

The minerals deal is at the heart of Kyiv's bid to win US support, but officials have wrangled over its wording in the shadow of an extraordinary war of words between Trump and Zelenskiy, who said the US leader was living in a "disinformation bubble".

Trump's rush to impose an end to Russia's war in Ukraine - and his seeming embrace of part of the Kremlin narrative - has stoked fears of far-reaching US concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin that could undermine Kyiv and Europe's security and alter the geopolitical landscape.

Zelenskiy refused to sign an earlier draft on his country's mineral deposits as Washington sought $US500 billion ($A787 billion) in natural wealth, protesting that Kyiv had received nowhere near that much US aid and the draft lacked the security guarantees Ukraine needs.

A Ukrainian government source told Reuters that Kyiv awaited US feedback on the "final changes" it had sent. The source said the US did not like the idea of including wording about providing security guarantees.

Zelenskiy welcomed a number of European and other leaders to a summit in Kyiv to commemorate the start in 2022 of the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two when Moscow invaded Ukraine.

"Putin will not gift us this peace, nor will he give it to us in exchange for anything. We have to win peace with strength, wisdom and unity - with our co-operation," Zelenskiy said.

The visitors to Kyiv on Monday included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and the leaders of Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

There was no sign of US representation.

The European leaders rallied around Zelenskiy in speeches, calling for countries on the continent to step up support for Kyiv, while some spoke of the urgent need to increase defence spending.

European officials have been left flat-footed by Trump's decisions to hold talks on ending the war in Ukraine with Russia, spurning both Kyiv and Europe, and by his administration's warning that the United States was no longer primarily focused on Europe's security.

At a White House press conference, Macron acknowledged that now was the time for negotiations with Putin and that Europe must bear a greater burden on Ukraine.

But he also made clear that the US must stay engaged and that any peace must build in sufficient assurances of its sovereignty.

Asked earlier whether Ukraine should be willing to cede territory as part of an end to the war, Trump, who last week falsely accused Kyiv of starting the conflict, said: "We'll see."

European foreign ministers said the region had entered a new era with Trump's stunning reversal of decades of US policy, but that they hoped the relationship with Washington could endure.

Putin said on Monday that Russia is not opposed to Europe's involvement in Russia-US peace talks on the Ukraine crisis that began in Riyadh last week, but he noted that Brussels had previously declined to engage in dialogue with Moscow.

He said Trump was approaching the Russia-Ukraine conflict with rationality rather than emotion.

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died and more than six million live as refugees abroad since Putin ordered the invasion.

Western estimates based on intelligence reports vary widely, but most say hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded on each side.