Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump on Monday raised the possibility of trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at ending the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Meeting at the White House, Zelenskyy was joined by numerous European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The leaders said they hoped to align on security guarantees for Ukraine and lay the groundwork for direct negotiations with Russia.
“We’re gonna have a lasting peace,” Trump said moments after greeting Zelenskyy. “I hope it’s going be immediately. I hope it [the war] doesn’t have to go on. And I think people, the whole world, is going to be very happy when that’s announced.”
Trump said a trilateral meeting with Putin could come soon.
“We’re going to try and get a three-party meeting maybe as soon as we can. And I have a feeling [Zelenskyy] and President Putin are going to work something out," Trump said. "Ultimately, this is a decision that can only be made by President Zelenskyy and by the people of Ukraine working also together in agreement with President Putin.”
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He added that Putin had indicated in their recent Alaska summit that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine — a key focus of the White House talks.
“The Alaska summit reinforced my belief that while difficult, peace is within reach,” Trump said. “I believe 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.”
Zelenskyy also emphasized the importance of security guarantees and humanitarian measures.
“We will speak more about security guarantees. This is very important that the United States gives such a strong signal and is ready for security guarantees,” he said. “The second point, or maybe the first, humanitarian direction, [is] very important to exchange all the prisoners. All the sensitive things, territorial and et cetera, we will discuss on the level of leaders during a trilateral meeting, and President Trump will try to organize such meeting.”
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy met privately with the European leaders to coordinate their positions. His office said the talks were focused on “the joint participation of the United States and Europe in creating the future security architecture for Ukraine and, consequently, for the entire European continent.”
Trump floated a “NATO-like” arrangement to provide Ukraine with Article 5-style protections and said the U.S. could consider sending troops as part of such guarantees. Most of the details are expected to be negotiated in the ongoing talks.
The high-profile gathering followed Trump’s meeting with Putin last week, which ended abruptly with no peace deal and no questions from reporters. Trump said he planned to call Putin again after Monday’s meeting.
