U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he has begun arrangements for what would be the first meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin since the war in Ukraine began, capping off a furious day of diplomacy in Washington to try and end the conflict.
Trump and Zelenskyy met at the White House with a group of European leaders who travelled to the U.S. to try and ensure a future peace deal doesn’t reward Russia for its full-scale invasion. The Ukrainian leader said he was “ready” to meet with his Russian counterpart as he appeared to accept Trump’s efforts to reach a negotiated settlement.
Following the meetings, Trump said on Truth Social that called Putin to begin setting up “a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy.”
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a trilat, which would be the two presidents, plus myself,” Trump wrote.
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Trump told reporters and the assembled officials earlier Monday that Putin would accept European security guarantees for Ukraine that the U.S. would help support, though he stopped short at committing U.S. troops to those efforts. Territorial concessions for Ukraine, meanwhile, were not discussed in public comments.
“I think President Putin wants to find an answer, too,” Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders. “And we’ll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we’re going to know whether or not we’re going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue.”
The U.S. president on Truth Social called the meetings “a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years.”
Russian state media, citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, said Putin and Trump spoke for 40 minutes about “the possibility of raising the level of representatives from the Ukrainian and Russian sides — that is, those representatives participating in the mentioned direct negotiations.”
Zelenskyy, Trump avoid another blow-up
Monday’s meetings came after Trump hosted Putin in Alaska for nearly three hours of talks last week focused on ending the war in Ukraine.
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With Ukraine’s future at stake, the meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy was much more cordial than their last encounter in the Oval Office in February, which devolved into a shouting match.
Zelenskyy wore a black suit and did not explicitly reject suggestions he may have to give up territory to Russia, or push back when Trump said, “I don’t think you need a ceasefire.”
“I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason, because you’d stop killing people immediately,” Trump told reporters. “But we can work … on a peace deal while they’re fighting. They have to fight. I wish they could stop, I’d like them to stop, but strategically, that could be a disadvantage for one side or the other.”
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Trump says can work a Ukraine-Russia peace deal ‘while they’re fighting’
Trump added that other deals to end global conflicts that he has helped negotiate this year did not include a ceasefire, which he appeared to only refer to as a temporary pause in fighting to allow for negotiations. Ceasefires have been declared between India and Pakistan, Iran and Israel, and other nations as part of overall deals to end their respective conflicts.
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The dismissal of a ceasefire came as Russia continued to strike Ukrainian cities despite the accelerating diplomatic efforts. A drone attack in Kharkiv overnight killed at least seven people, including a toddler and her 16-year-old brother, while strikes in Zaporizhzhia killed three people, according to Ukrainian officials.
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Zelenskyy, meanwhile, repeatedly thanked Trump and suggested he’s ready to meet with Putin for the first time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian leader had previously said he would only meet with Putin if he demonstrated he was serious about ending the war.
“We need to stop this war to stop Russia, and we need support (from) American and European partners,” he said after mentioning the overnight Russian strikes. “We will do our best for this.
“We are ready for a trilateral as the president said,” he added. “It’s a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.”
Trump said a trilateral meeting between himself, Zelenskyy and Putin would mean there’s “a good chance” of ending the war.
“And if we don’t have a trilat, then the fighting continues,” he said.
European leaders back Ukraine ceasefire
Trump said there would be a “NATO-like” security presence in Ukraine with Europe shouldering most of that burden, along with U.S. support. He said details would be hashed out in his meetings with EU leaders.
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“They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump said. “I think it’s very important to get the deal done.”
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Zelenskyy, European leaders strategize ahead of Trump meeting in Washington
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte joined Trump and Zelenskyy for the talks.
Macron and Merz both publicly pushed back on Trump’s suggestion that a ceasefire was unnecessary, saying securing an immediate end to hostilities was critical.
“I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. “So let’s work on that and let’s try to put pressure on Russia.”
Trump responded that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.” But he reiterated that a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia is “very attainable” at this point in the war.
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German chancellor ‘can’t imagine’ Trump-Zelenskyy-Putin meeting without ceasefire
Zelenskyy told the leaders that his talks with Trump were “the best ones we’ve had.”
The leaders — who along with Zelenskyy were left out of the Alaska summit with Putin — travelled to Washington to ensure Ukraine and the continent are safeguarded from any widening aggression from Moscow.
“I think European leaders were absolutely freaked out by the circus that happened in Alaska,” Michael Bociurkiw, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told Global News.
“I think they’re all (in Washington) as part of a sense of guilt as well. … We’re reminded that it took a long, long time for European leaders to step up to the plate and give Ukraine everything it needs (for the war).”
Von der Leyen hosted Zelenskyy and other European allies in Brussels on Sunday to strategize ahead of Monday’s meetings and show a united front.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney attended that meeting virtually on behalf of Canada, which has also sought to back Ukraine while supporting Trump’s efforts.
Asked by reporters Monday what advice he gave to Zelenskyy about whether to accept a peace deal, Carney would only say he “gave that advice” during Sunday’s meeting, without providing details.
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Carney praises US stance on Ukraine security guarantees following Trump-Putin summit
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, in a virtual call from Finland, said Canada supports Ukraine making its own decisions about its future.
“Decisions regarding the future of Ukraine belong to Ukrainians alone. That’s Canada’s position,” she said.
“The work that we will do on the international stage, and I will do as minister, will be to ensure that my counterparts around the world are aware of Canada’s positions and to build the bridge necessary to ensure that other countries also view international law, territorial integrity, the rules-based international order, as fundamental institutions that must be protected and respected.”
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Heading into the meeting, Zelenskyy and Trump gave conflicting statements to social media on who should be held responsible for ending the war.
While Zelenskyy urged continued pressure on Moscow, Trump posted on his Truth Social website that “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
He also appeared to support Russia holding onto Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Moscow annexed in 2014, as well as Ukraine not joining NATO.
Zelenskyy appeared to respond with his own post late Sunday, saying, “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.”
He said that “peace must be lasting,” not as it was after Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine eight years ago, and “Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.”
Asked Monday about the conflicting statements, Trump declined to take sides.
“We want it to end good,” he said. “The people of Ukraine have suffered incredibly.”
—With files from Global’s Jackson Proskow and the Associated Press
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