WASHINGTON, DC – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he was willing to meet directly with his Russian counterpart to end the war.
Speaking to reporters after talks with US President Donald Trump and several European leaders at the White House, Zelenskyy said he was ready for what would be his first face-to-face with Vladimir Putin since Moscow’s invasion nearly three and a half years ago.
“I confirmed — and all European leaders supported me — that we are ready for a bilateral meeting with Putin,” Zelenskyy said following the summit.
Zelensky has come under increasing pressure to cede territory to end the grinding war, as Russia makes a series of advances.
Ahead of the White House meeting, Trump had pushed Ukraine to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO — both key demands made by Putin.
But Zelenskyy stressed he had been able to present a clearer picture of the battlelines to Trump, who he met in a one-on-one in the Oval Office.
“This was the best of our meetings,” Zelenskyy said, according to a statement put out by his office. “I was able to show many things, even on the map, to all American colleagues regarding the situation on the battlefield.”
Rather than concessions from Ukraine, the summit focused on arranging security guarantees in the event of a peace deal, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters afterwards.French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday for stepping up sanctions against Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.
“President Trump believes we can get an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace accord,” Macron told reporters after talks at the White House.
“But if at the end this process is met by refusal, we are also ready to say that we need to increase sanctions.”
He pointed to recent secondary sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on India, which has emerged as a major buyer of Russian energy as Western nations cut back due to sanctions following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump said the guarantees “would be provided by the various European Countries (in) coordination with the United States of America.”
Zelenskyy added that “it is important that the United States of America gives a clear signal that it will be among the countries that will assist, coordinate and also be participants in security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy said those plans would be “formalized in some way in the next week or ten days.”
Hopes of a breakthrough rose after Trump said he had spoken by phone with Russian counterpart Putin — whom he met in Alaska last week — following a “very good” meeting with the Europeans and the Ukrainian president at the White House.
It would be the first meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders since Moscow’s brutal invasion nearly three and a half years ago, and comes as Trump tries to live up to his promise to quickly end the war.
Trump, 79, wrote on his Truth Social network that “everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.”
“At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” Trump said. AFP
Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks, but there was no confirmation of a date or location.
Zelenskyy confirmed to reporters outside the White House he was “ready” for a bilateral with bitter foe Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has led to tens of thousands of deaths.
In Moscow, a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine.
The Ukraine war has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, but Trump’s summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce any ceasefire.
Zelenskyy then rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Commission and NATO then announced that they would be coming too, in a pointed show of support.
Zelenskyy also met one-on-one in the Oval Office with Trump in their first encounter in the heart of the US presidency since their acrimonious blow-up there in February.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting was their “best” yet, with little of the tensions that erupted when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of TV cameras for not being “grateful” for US support.
Trump even complimented Zelenskyy on his black jacket, after the Ukrainian was criticized by right-wing media because he failed to change his trademark war-leader’s outfit for a suit during the February visit.
The US president meanwhile said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that Putin had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv’s long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.
Trump said the guarantees “would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters at the White House it was a “very successful meeting” with “the president really breaking the deadlock.”
“Today was really about security guarantees, the US getting more involved there, and all the details to be hammered out over the coming days,” he said.
The Financial Times, citing a document seen by the newspaper, said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.
Zelenskyy later spoke to reporters about a $90 billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalize the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.
The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.
Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO — both key demands made by Putin.
French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.
Finnish President Alex Stubb said Putin was not “to be trusted.”
Germany’s Merz meanwhile said Ukraine should not be forced to surrender its Donbas region to Russia in talks.
“The Russian demand that Kyiv give up the free parts of Donbas corresponds, to put it bluntly, to a proposal for the United States to have to give up Florida,” Merz told reporters. AFP
