US President Donald Trump pledged security support for Ukraine during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.
The meeting included European leaders and focused on efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, with discussions of potential security guarantees and a trilateral meeting involving Russia.
Trump highlighted progress in peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while concerns were raised about Ukraine's territorial defense in the Donbas region.
US President Donald Trump phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin making arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a day of extraordinary meetings at the White House on August 18 as part of a push to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump said he called Putin to discuss a possible meeting with Zelenskyy after hosting Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Union, and NATO at the White House.
The location of a prospective meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy has yet to be determined, but Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine, Trump said on Truth Social.
"This was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years," Trump said.
Yury Ushakov, aide to Putin on foreign affairs, said both sides “expressed support for the continuation of direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.”
The idea of “raising the level of the representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian sides” was discussed during the call, Ushakov said. But it was not clear from Ushakov’s statement whether Putin agreed to meet Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy told reporters outside the White House after the meetings that he was ready for a bilateral meeting, adding that he would meet Putin without preconditions.
A Zelenskyy-Putin meeting would be followed by a trilateral meeting with the participation of Trump, according to the US president, whose meeting with Zelenskyy was far more relaxed than Ukrainian president's last visit in February, which broke down after a heated argument and accusations that Zelenskyy had not thanked the US enough for its support.
This time Zelenskyy started by thanking Trump for his "efforts to stop the killing." The two leaders smiled and joked after Trump greeted Zelenskyy warmly and commented on his black suit, a departure from his usual military clothes.
A major topic of the meetings was security guarantees that would be extended to Kyiv as part of a deal to end the fighting. Trump has ruled out allowing Ukraine to join NATO, but on August 18 he said European countries “want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that.”
Trump said during the initial bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office that European countries would provide "the first line of defense," but the United States would "be involved."
Zelenskyy said he was pleased that the United States was offering such a "strong signal," telling journalists that security guarantees "will probably be decided by our partners." Zelenskyy referred to a military aid purchase totaling $90 billion and said security plans would be "formalized in some way in the next week or ten days."
He said that territorial issues related to a potential peace agreement will be worked out between Ukraine and Russia.
Zelenskyy's one-on-one talks with Trump took place before German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO chief Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb joined the meeting.
Rutte said it was a "breakthrough" that the United States would get involved in providing the security guarantees. Though the level of US involvement has yet to be determined, the meeting did not discuss the possibility of a deployment of US troops in Ukraine.
In an interview on Fox News, he also said US and European leaders discussed “Article 5 kind of security guarantees for Ukraine,” adding that it is important that the guarantees prevent Putin from ever trying again to invade parts of Ukraine. Article 5 of the NATO treaty is the alliance's mutual defense clause.
The European leaders came to Washington to show a united front on Ukraine, and many praised Trump, who recently threatened sanctions and other measures to quickly end the war.
“The idea that the leaders of a lot of European countries just dropped everything and flew over to have this meeting suggests how very nervous they are that something's going to happen,” David Silbey, a professor of military history at Cornell University, told RFE/RL.
"If I were Zelenskyy, at least I didn't get berated in the Oval Office this point, but I wouldn't necessarily be feeling terribly optimistic,” Sibley said.
Stubb warned that Putin "is rarely to be trusted" and it remains to be seen whether he will meet with Zelenskyy.
"I'm most skeptical over Putin's commitment to this process," Stubb said.
Nearly all the leaders indicated after the talks that there is still a long way to go, though the meetings seemed to energize efforts to end the war after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on August 15 failed to reach even a cease-fire.
“This was a very clear show of unity between Ukrainians and the Europeans. And they -- all together -- were sort of trying to pivot Trump back from his pivot to Russia that happened in Alaska,” Oxana Shevel, a professor of political science Tufts University and a Ukraine expert, told RFE/RL.
Western media reported after the summit that Putin floated a peace deal that would involve Ukraine withdrawing from a large area of territory in the Donbas region.
This raised alarm bells in Kyiv and European capitals, which fear a withdrawal from heavily fortified areas would leave Ukraine dangerously exposed to further Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy said he had had a "very good conversation" with Trump in their bilateral talks and a long discussion about territory.
Zelenskyy revealed that the two men had pored over a map together. His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, posted a photo of them doing so. But Rutte and other European leaders said exchanging territory was not discussed at their White House meetings.
Trump reiterated on August 18 that his goal is "long-term peace," saying a cease-fire was unnecessary.
"You'll see Putin really would like to do something," Trump added, saying that Putin told him in Alaska that he would be open to accepting security guarantees.
Before the meeting started, a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv killed at least six civilians. Zelenskyy said an 18-month-old baby was among the victims. Later on August 18, debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery and hospital in Volgograd, the regional administration said.
Merz and Macron said all the other countries at the White House meeting wanted a cease-fire to bring an end to such attacks.
Merz also called on Trump to apply "pressure" on Putin to force him into the trilateral meeting, while Macron said a later stage of negotiations allow Europe a seat at the table.
(RFE/RL/NS)
READ ALSO: