President Donald Trump says he has begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump said in a social media posting following lengthy talks at the White House on Monday with Zelenskyy and European leaders. “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.”
“We’re going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders. Trump and Zelenskyy also expressed hope of soon holding three-way talks among the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as he met with Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as the president of the European Commission and the head of NATO.
Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders.
“They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump said. “I think its very important to get the deal done.”
Speaking Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the idea of a possible NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Such a scenario could see further escalation and “unpredictable consequences,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned.
Trump joked that a similar circumstance wouldn’t play well in the U.S.
Zelenskyy has said his typically less formal attire since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 is to show solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers.
Trump said he plans to talk to Putin after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders.
“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,” Trump said.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote Sunday night on social media. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Zelenskyy responded 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.”
Putin opposes Ukraine joining NATO outright, yet Trump’s team claims the Russian leader is open to Western allies agreeing to defend Ukraine if it comes under attack.
At the start of Monday’s meeting with European leaders, the German and French leaders praised Trump for opening a path to peace, but they urged the U.S. president to push Russia for a ceasefire.
“I would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Trump, for his part, on Monday reiterated that a broader, war-ending peace agreement between the two countries is “very attainable,” but that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.”
The other European leaders in attendance were: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
European leaders are still looking for a concrete details about what U.S. involvement would be toward building a security guarantee for Ukraine.
Still, Rutte, the NATO Secretary-General, called Trump’s commitment to security guarantees “a big step, a breakthrough.”
Zelenskyy outlined what he said his country needed to feel secure, which included a “strong Ukrainian army” through weapons sales and training. The second part, he said, would depend on the outcome of Monday’s talks and what EU countries, NATO and the U.S. would be able to guarantee to the war-torn country.
