Trump claims he is setting up meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin
Donald Trump has taken to social media to say arrangements are under way for a future meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin and, later, a trilateral meeting between the two along with Trump.
The US president posted on his Truth Social platform that today’s meeting in Washington was “a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years”.
He said vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff were “coordinating with Russia and Ukraine”.
Trump said:
Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for 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.
Putin has previously resisted a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskyy.
Updated at 18.51 EDT
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Opening summary
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French president Emmanuel Macron has called for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Vladimir Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.
“President Trump believes we can get an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace accord,” Macron told reporters after the talks at the White House.
“But if at the end this process is met by refusal, we are also ready to say that we need to increase sanctions.”
Macron pointed to recent secondary sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on India, which has emerged as a major buyer of Russian energy as western nations cut back due to sanctions following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron said the secondary sanctions on India had “had a lot of effects”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Over the weekend, Trump publicly again pressured Ukraine to concede territory, siding with Putin and not Zelensky, who has insisted on defending all territory which Russia has taken by force.
Asked by reporters if Trump had said that concessions were necessary before any US security guarantees to Ukraine, Macron said: “No, that wasn’t discussed at all. We’re well away from that.”
Macron said he hoped Russia and Ukraine would resume contact “in the coming days” with a potential three-way summit involving Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy “in two to three weeks”.
As Donald Trump touted his bona fides as the so-called “peacemaker-in-chief” during talks over Ukraine at the White House, he made two big claims: that he wants peace deals instead of ceasefires, and that he has ended six wars since he became president.
But as Andrew Roth explains, in Trump’s haste to hammer out a peace deal in Ukraine, he is playing fast and loose with the truth.
Trump and his administration have claimed to have helped settle the conflicts between Israel and Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia …
On the subject of ceasefires, by Trump’s own admission, he has often been seeking them in these conflicts. Now, he has sought to rewrite the record, piling pressure on Ukraine.
Trump’s declaration that he was not seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine came after last week’s meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where the Russian president initially demanded that Ukraine cede control over territory in the country’s southeast before negotiating a ceasefire.
The question is crucial to the sequencing of an eventual peace in Ukraine.
You can read Roth’s full explainer here:
Updated at 20.20 EDT
French president Emmanuel Macron says any future peace deal between Russia and Ukraine cannot restrict the size of Kyiv’s military.
Macron told reporters that Donald Trump and European leaders had agreed on the need for a “robust Ukrainian army that can resist any attempted attack” and that it would not have “any limitation in number or capacity of arms”.
Macron also said on Monday the White House talks did not discuss Ukrainian territorial concessions, AFP is reporting.
ShareZelenskyy says Ukraine security guarantees likely within 10 days
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying security guarantees for Kyiv will likely be worked out within the next 10 days.
“Security guarantees will probably be ‘unpacked’ by our partners, and more and more details will emerge,” the Ukrainian president said at a broadcast press briefing after his meetings in Washington DC.
“All of this will somehow be formalised on paper within the next week to ten days,” he said on Tuesday, quoted by Reuters.
Zelenskyy also said territorial issues related to a potential peace agreement would be worked out between Ukraine and Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking near the White House after the meetings with Donald Trump and European leaders. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/APShare
Updated at 20.04 EDT
German chancellor Friedrich Merz says Ukraine should not be forced to surrender its Donbas region to Russia in talks, likening it to the US giving up a state.
“The Russian demand that Kyiv give up the free parts of Donbas corresponds, to put it bluntly, to a proposal for the United States to have to give up Florida,” Merz told reporters after the White House talks on Monday.
Merz said Putin and Trump – in their call in the midst of the talks – “agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks”.
Merz, quoted by Agence France-Presse, also said Trump voiced a readiness to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, even though the US president put the onus on Europeans.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House meeting on Monday. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/PA
The German chancellor said:
The bottom line is that the United States of America is prepared to provide security guarantees and to coordinate this with the Europeans. There will be appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement.
Trump has repeatedly ruled out Ukraine entering Nato, siding with Putin who has called the step a provocation.
Updated at 20.07 EDT
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov has said Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump only discussed the “idea” of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Monday’s phone call.
Russia’s Tass news agency quoted the aide as saying Putin told Trump that he was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine.
Tass, cited by Agence France-Presse, quoted Ushakov as saying:
In the course of the further phone conversation, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump expressed support for the continuation of direct negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine.
In this regard, in particular, the idea was discussed that it would be necessary to study the possibility of raising the level of representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian sides, that is, those representatives who participate in the aforementioned direct negotiations.
Updated at 19.52 EDT
Zelenskyy says he is ready to meet Putin – report
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is ready for a bilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Updated at 19.33 EDT
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy within a fortnight, German chancellor Friedrich Merz has told reporters.
Merz said that Putin and Trump – in their phone call in the midst of the White House talks – “agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Updated at 19.56 EDT
Finland’s president has said the main agreement from the White House meeting was that the killing has to end.
Alexander Stubb said Donald Trump felt like it was a good idea to call Vladimir Putin and propose a bilateral meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin, adding that it remained to be seen if Putin had the courage to come to such a meeting, Reuters is reporting
Putin could not be trusted, Stubb also said.
It was reported earlier that Trump interrupted his White House talks with European leaders to make the call to the Russian president.
Finnish president Alexander Stubb at a press conference at Finland’s embassy in Washington DC after the White House meeting. Photograph: Oliver Contreras/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 20.23 EDT
Donald Trump also said in his Truth Social post that during today’s Washington talks he and European leaders discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and “which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America”.
Earlier in the day, when asked if future security guarantees for Ukraine could involve American troops, the US president didn’t rule it out.
Trump said:
When it comes to security there’s going to be a lot of help … They’re the first line of defence because they’re there, Europe, but we’re going to help them out also, we’ll be involved.
Updated at 19.34 EDT
Six European leaders joined Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the Washington meeting with Donald Trump – here’s what the scenes looked like.
ShareTrump claims he is setting up meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin
Donald Trump has taken to social media to say arrangements are under way for a future meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin and, later, a trilateral meeting between the two along with Trump.
The US president posted on his Truth Social platform that today’s meeting in Washington was “a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years”.
He said vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff were “coordinating with Russia and Ukraine”.
Trump said:
Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for 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.
Putin has previously resisted a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskyy.
Updated at 18.51 EDT
That’s all from me Lucy Campbell for today. My colleague Adam Fulton will be along shortly to steer you through the rest of the day’s news.
The reporter who criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not dressing formally enough during his last meeting with Donald Trump said the Ukrainian president looked ‘fabulous’ in his suit during their latest meeting at the White House – and our video colleagues have clipped the exchange here:
‘I changed, you did not’: Zelenskyy jokes with reporter about suit – video ShareRussian strategic bombers take off for possible attack on Ukraine, Ukraine’s Air Force says
Ukraine’s Air Force said early on Tuesday (local time) that two Russian strategic bombers took off from Russian airfields for a possible attack on Ukraine.
“We will provide additional updates if the situation changes,” the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.
ShareZelenskyy to stay in DC for more talks as meeting ends – report
A spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told NBC News: “The meeting has ended, but European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are staying for now in DC to continue talks, potentially in another format.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen posted an image of the leaders alongside Donald Trump inside the White House with a message of unity and stressing the need for strong security guarantees for Ukraine.
We are here, as allies and friends, for peace in Ukraine and in Europe.
This is an important moment, as we continue to work on strong security guarantees for Ukraine and a lasting and durable peace. pic.twitter.com/FFF0Fqcq6y
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 18, 2025
ShareTrump’s meeting with European leaders has ended
We now have confirmation from the White House that Donald Trump’s talks with European leaders in the east room has concluded.