Presented by BP.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Chief Playbook correspondent Eugene Daniels. It is Friday, February 28th, the last day of February somehow. Here's what's driving the day.

For the second day in a row, the biggest story in Washington involves someone who you don't typically see on the hill or on American soil at all.

Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit with President Donald Trump for the first time since Trump's return to the White House.

Joining me now to talk through the visit and what to expect is national security reporter and the co-author

of Politico's National Security Daily. Eric Bazella Mill. Eric, good morning. Thanks so much for having me.

When you have these foreign visits in DC, are they kind of like your Super Bowl? Because you've had a few

Super Bowls over the last month or so. As my career has gone on, like each one gets less and less

exciting.

Oh, no.

But when Zelensky is coming to town to sign, like, a deal that could change the course of history, yes, this is the Super Bowl.

There's that.

That's that. We'll get into the deal.

But I want to first talk about the stakes for Ukraine and Zelensky, right?

Donald Trump thinks very differently about Ukraine and what Russia did

in its invasion than Joe Biden did. He recently called Zelensky a dictator. So the relationship

is in a weird place. So what are the stakes for Zelensky and for Ukraine? For Zelensky,

this is basically the last chance alone. If this deal doesn't get signed

within, you know, the next 24 hours, it's very unlikely that Ukraine assistance will be on the

future table for any kind of policymaking conversation about the war. And in part is because Trump is

incredibly transactional, as we know. The president wants to get a deal done that then he can frame as a victory. And this is all part

of his big strategy to end the war. And we have seen already how this relationship has soured as

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