Donald Trump, the US president, has launched efforts to bring Vladimir Putin the President of Russia and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the table for direct talks, following a high-stakes meeting with European leaders at the White House.
Trump said he phoned Putin immediately after the discussions, describing the call as the “first step” towards arranging both a bilateral sit-down between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and, later, a trilateral meeting involving himself. “Everyone is very happy about the possibility of peace for Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
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The White House meeting, which included leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Commission, focused heavily on what security guarantees Ukraine would need to end the nearly four-year war. Trump said European nations had agreed in principle to provide assurances, coordinated with Washington.
For Zelensky, the list of guarantees is long. Asked what he would need from Trump to sign off on a deal, the Ukrainian leader replied bluntly: “everything.” That, he explained, meant strengthening the Ukrainian army with weapons, manpower, training and intelligence, as well as broader commitments from the US and Europe.
While Trump insists peace is “within reach” after his Alaska summit with Putin last week, the details remain contentious. He suggested that “possible exchanges of territory” would be part of negotiations, hinting that concessions might be drawn along the current frontlines. A ceasefire, he added, was desirable but not strictly necessary if a larger settlement could be secured soon.
That position put him at odds with some of his European counterparts. German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron both pressed for an immediate ceasefire before any trilateral meeting could proceed. “We all would like to see a ceasefire … I can’t imagine the next meeting taking place without it,” Merz told Trump.
Read also: Takeaways from Trump-Putin summit: No agreement, no questions but lots of pomp
Other leaders struck a more conciliatory note. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni praised Trump’s diplomacy, saying “something has changed thanks to you,” while NATO secretary general Mark Rutte called the US president’s support for Ukrainian security a “breakthrough.”
Despite differences over sequencing, there was broad recognition that progress had been made. Finnish president Alexander Stubb remarked that more movement had occurred in the past two weeks than in the previous three years. UK prime minister Keir Starmer described the talks as a “historic step forward.”
For now, Trump has not said when or where the meetings with Putin and Zelensky will take place. But by setting the stage for direct engagement between the warring sides, he has positioned himself at the centre of the most serious push for peace since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
