As the fighting in Ukraine rages on, Paul Gavrilyuk is warily hopeful that U.S. and European leaders will continue their support.

“It is time for Europe to act,” he declares. “But I’m also concerned about the future of Ukraine. Ukraine will continue fighting.”

Gavrilyuk, president of Rebuild Ukraine, a St. Paul nonprofit, spoke Saturday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting with leaders of the United Kingdom.

“I’m happy to be here. Really, I saw a lot of people,” Zelenskyy said. “I want to thank you, people of the United Kingdom for such big support from the very beginning of this war.”

It was a warm welcome for the Ukrainian President as he turns to European allies for military and humanitarian assistance.

“This is the moment when the real decisions have to be made,” notes Dmytro Zolotukhin, a former Ukrainian deputy minister. “European nations and European political leaders, they do not have any other option. Ukraine is a part of European cultural space.”

Both the U.S. and the European Union have spent billions to support Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022.

“(The Ukrainians) have stood up for freedom,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) told reporters. “They have stopped Putin from advancing, not only into their nation but into other European nations with their own blood.”

Zelenskyy’s planned meeting with European leaders this weekend follows a contentious trip to Washington Friday that was cut short when it turned into a shouting match.

“You’re not in a good position,” declared President Trump. “You don’t have the cards right now.”

“I’m not playing cards,” Zelenskyy responded.

“You are gambling with the lives of millions of people,” Trump said. “You’re gambling with World War III.”

After the blow-up, a planned mineral deal between the U.S. and Ukraine was left unsigned.

“My hope is that rational minds win out as we go forward,” Klobuchar says. “The mineral idea is a good idea. It’s part of what will be the future, which is once Vladimir Putin stops his invasion and assault on a sovereign nation, that this ally Ukraine will be a good economic partner of ours.”

“Ukraine will continue fighting,” Gavrilyuk declares.

He says since March 2022, Rebuild Ukraine has provided over $600,000 in medical supplies and training to soldiers, refugees and children scarred by the war.

But for Gavrilyuk, this is personal.

He says his parents were forced to flee Ukraine after the war broke out, while a distant cousin was wounded and sent to the hospital.  

“This was a result of the shelling, and he was in a military operation,” Gavrilyuk recalls. “He was in the hospital for a month and, in fact, was redeployed.”

And the war has not let up.

During his conversation with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Zolotukhin talked about it.

“While we are speaking, there is an air raid alert in Kyiv,” he explained. “Every night, there are attacks of kamikaze drones. Unfortunately, we still have to feel this every night.”

Zelenskyy is set to meet Sunday with leaders from the U.K., France and other European countries, as well as the NATO secretary-general.

ABC News is reporting the Ukrainian President believes the heated Oval Office meeting was “not good for both sides” but that “the relationship can be salvaged.”

President Trump, meanwhile, told reporters that “he doesn’t trust or distrust anybody,” but he “just wants to get a deal done, and if the deal happens, good, but you can’t embolden somebody who doesn’t have the cards.”

Gavrilyuk says he believes both the U.S. and Europe need to keep supporting Ukraine.

“For me, this is a war about values,” he says. “It’s really the war about the values of a Democratic society and about peace, not just in Europe, but around the world.”