In their second meeting in the White House this year, US President Donald Trump stated that the nation would be prepared to assist European efforts to oversee any peace agreement in Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, thanked him.
The tone and manner of the sit-down was very different from when Ukraine’s president was chased out of the White House in February. This time around, Trump welcomed Zelenskyy and other European leaders to reinvigorate months of stalled US-led efforts to end the Ukraine war, which has been going on for three and a half years.
To discuss his meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump called and chatted extensively with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president was given a red-carpet treatment during the Alaska summit with Trump on Friday.
After his meeting with the Ukrainian president and European leaders, Trump announced that he will now try to set up a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy. The key issue for a peace deal is how to stop future Russian aggression.
Trump has ruled out Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which would provide the besieged nation with additional security from the military alliance. Though details are still not clear, he did say that he supported Ukraine receiving security guarantees.
Trump said, European countries “want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that.”
Zelenskyy expressed his satisfaction, stating that the US was sending “such (a) strong signal.”
Trump suggested that Putin would be amenable to security assurances, while Europeans sought to establish a force capable of thwarting any peace deal in Ukraine. US special envoy Steve Witkoff, stated on Sunday that Moscow was open to Ukraine receiving NATO-style protections.
European leaders praised the move and its wider ramifications.
“When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. He added that talks to determine what the US is willing to provide will start as soon as Tuesday.
Following the meeting, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that there was “real progress” and a “real sense of unity.”
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated that all parties were collaborating on “a just and lasting peace” prior to the meeting.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered a more cautious tone, stating that while “the path is open now” to stopping the Ukraine war, the next steps are “more complicated.” He added that he would want to see a ceasefire come to fruition and suggested that they strive to exert pressure on Russia.
“If we can do the ceasefire, great,” Trump said, but he made it clear that it was not a deal breaker. After the Alaska summit, he backed off his call for a ceasefire, agreeing with Putin that talks should instead concentrate on a lasting peace agreement.
The European leaders supporting Zelenskyy at the White House meeting were Merz, Macron, Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and von der Leyen.