KEY POINTS
- Trump hosts meeting with European leaders and Zelensky in the Oval Office
- Trump says he believes Putin wants the Ukraine war to end
- Trump says the US will be involved in providing security guarantees as part of a peace agreement
- Trump says a ceasefire was not necessary to end the Russia-Ukraine war
- Trump says he will hold a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky
- Trump and Zelensky meeting at the White House over Russia–Ukraine peace deal.
- Trump demands Ukraine give up Crimea and drop NATO bid.
- Zelensky calls talks “very serious,” seeks “reliable and lasting peace.”
- European leaders stress peace must be “fair and just,” warn against concessions.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had at the summit talks last week accepted that there would be security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any peace deal.
“In a very significant step, President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine and this is one of the key points that we need to consider and we’re going to be considering that at the table, also who will do what essentially,” said Trump as he opened talks with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
“I think the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We’re going to help them and we’re going to make it very secure,” he said.
At an expanded meeting with European leaders, Zelensky gave an upbeat assessment of talks with Trump and said they discussed security guarantees.
“We had a very good conversation with President Trump, and it really was the best one — or, sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future,” Zelensky said.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for a four-way meeting including Europeans in response to Trump’s hopes of bringing together the Ukrainian and Russian presidents.
“I think as a follow up we would need probably a quadrilateral meeting, because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,” Macron said at the White House.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a ceasefire in Ukraine before a leaders’ summit, contradicting Trump’s call to work for a peace deal with Russia instead.
“I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let’s work on that and let’s try to put pressure on Russia,” Merz said at the White House meeting.
Earlier, Trump met with Zelensky in the Oval Office. Talking to reporters, Trump said he will speak by telephone with Putin after White House talks with Zelensky and European leaders.
“I just spoke to President Putin indirectly and we’re going to have a phone call right after these meetings today,” Trump told reporters as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Trump said that if his meeting with Zelensky went well he expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Putin with the objective of ending the Ukraine-Russia war.
“We’re going to have a meeting. I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilateral meeting, and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” said Trump, sitting alongside Zelensky at the White House.
Trump repeated his view that a ceasefire was not necessary to end the Russia-Ukraine war, echoing earlier comments.
“I don’t think you need a ceasefire,” Trump said, sitting alongside Zelensky. “I know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand strategically why one country or the other wouldn’t want it. You have a ceasefire and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and you know maybe they don’t want that.”
Trump also expressed hope that Monday’s summit could eventually lead to a trilateral meeting with Putin, adding that he believes Putin wants the war to end.
Zelensky thanked Trump for hosting the talks, which will be expanded to include European leaders later in the day.
“Thank you for (the) invitation and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war,” he said.
The US President said that Washington will be involved in providing security guarantees as part of a peace agreement on the Ukraine war.
Trump said that while European countries are “the first line of defense because they are there, they are Europe, we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.”
European leaders in Washington
European leaders gathered at the White House on Monday for high-stakes talks with Trump and Zelensky, seeking to bridge differences over a potential peace deal with Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, are demonstrating support for Ukraine. Trump has asked Ukraine to make concessions in peace deal with Russia.
Following his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, Trump said Ukraine must give up Crimea and abandon its NATO ambitions, two of Moscow’s top demands.
Trump will later meet separately with the European leaders.
Trump, 79, said it was a “big day at the White House” but appeared to be in a combative mood, churning out a string of social media posts.
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” the Republican said on his Truth Social network. “And I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them.”
Serious talks
The European leaders held a preparatory meeting with the Ukrainian president in Washington on Monday morning, while Zelensky also met Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.
Zelensky described the talks at the White House as “very serious” — and sought to flatter Trump ahead of the meeting, by echoing his trademark “peace through strength” language.
“President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,” he said.
Zelensky later called on social media for a “reliable and lasting peace for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe” and said they would discuss Western security guarantees for Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters on the plane to Washington: “We’ve got to make sure there is peace, that it is lasting peace, and that it is fair and that it is just.”
Reports, cited by AFP, had said Putin would be open to Western security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of any peace deal — but had ruled out Kyiv’s long-term ambition to join NATO.
The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska failed to produce a ceasefire in the nearly three-and-a-half-year Ukraine war.
Trump said Sunday that Zelensky could end the war “almost immediately, if he wants to” but that, for Ukraine, there was “no getting back” Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and “NO GOING INTO NATO.”
‘Some concessions’
US media reports have said Putin would consider freezing much of the current frontline in Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to completely give up the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made “some concessions” on territory.
Kyiv and European leaders have warned against making political and territorial concessions to Russia.
