WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday expressed hope that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will soon hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the objective of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump, who hosted a meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington, said the United States will be involved in providing “very good” protection and security for Ukraine with European countries if a peace deal is struck, while ruling out pursuing a cease-fire first.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Fox News that about 30 countries, including Australia and Japan, have been working together over the last couple of months on the idea of offering security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian aggression.
At the conclusion of his meetings with Zelenskyy and a group of European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump phoned Putin to initiate the three-way talks, according to a post on his official social media account.
Trump said on the Truth Social platform that he has begun arranging talks, at a location to be determined, between Putin and Zelenskyy. That meeting could be followed by another involving Trump.
Trump earlier said that if he and Zelenskyy can meet with Putin together, “there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war.”
He added that in a period that is “not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we’re going to know whether or not we’re going to solve this.”
Zelenskyy, wearing a black jacket instead of his typical military attire, said he is ready to meet with Putin in person without any conditions and voiced support for Trump’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported that Trump’s call with Putin lasted about 40 minutes. It quoted Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying that they spoke in favor of having “direct talks” between Russia and Ukraine.
During an interview with the U.S. broadcaster, Rutte said Putin agreed to a meeting with Zelenskyy in his conversation with Trump.
Unlike in Zelenskyy’s previous visit to the White House in February, which devolved into an angry exchange with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the two presidents this time sounded positive and had a friendly interaction before the press.
When he later sat with the European delegation, Zelenskyy said he discussed “very sensitive” issues with Trump, including U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, and that their talks were “constructive.”
On U.S. security guarantees, Trump said Europe is “the first line of defense,” but “we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.”
Trump also touched on the need to discuss potential territorial exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, offering “the current line of contact” as a possible demarcation point.
Zelenskyy’s first Oval Office visit in six months took place after Trump’s summit with Putin on Friday in Alaska.
Zelenskyy was not invited to the summit that ended without any agreement on a cease-fire or a peace deal in the war that began three and a half years ago.
Since holding more than two and a half hours of talks with Putin in Anchorage, Trump has shifted his position on the war, aligning more closely with Putin’s preference to negotiate a comprehensive peace deal to end the conflict.
Abandoning his earlier demand for an immediate cease-fire, Trump has suggested that Ukraine give up large areas of land in the east of the country as part of a peace deal with Russia.
Ukraine is opposed to ceding any territory.
In addition to the NATO chief and the leaders of Britain and France, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen joined Zelenskyy at the White House.
The European leaders welcomed Trump’s commitment to providing some kind of security guarantee for Ukraine.
However, the German leader challenged Trump in front of the TV cameras, stressing that a cease-fire is required before entering the next phase.
“The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones,” Merz said. “To be honest, we all would like to see a cease-fire…I can’t imagine that the next meeting would (take) place without a cease-fire. So, let’s work on that, and let’s try to put pressure on Russia.
BY: The Times Union
