President Trump emerged Monday from his meetings at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and seven European leaders about Russia’s war in Ukraine without a peace deal. But Trump expressed optimism that he could bring Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin together at the negotiating table.
If Putin and Zelensky were to meet, it would be their first face-to-face interaction since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Monday’s talks in Washington, D.C., came three days after Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in a highly watched summit that also ended without a ceasefire deal.
The president characterized the White House confab as “a very good, early step” in a post on Truth Social Monday night, and said that “arrangements” for a meeting between Putin and Zelensky were underway. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters outside the White House that Trump had persuaded Putin to meet with Zelensky “within the next two weeks.”
Pressed by reporters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Putin had agreed to have direct talks with Zelensky in the coming weeks. She declined to give further details.
Trump wants a ‘trilat’ with Putin and Zelensky — after they meet without him
Zelensky and Trump shake hands in the Oval Office on Monday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking to reporters before their Oval Office sit-down, Trump and the Ukrainian president discussed the possibility of a trilateral meeting with Putin in the not-too-distant future.
“We are ready for trilateral,” Zelensky told reporters in the Oval Office.
“If we don’t have a trilat, then the fighting continues,” Trump said. “And if we do, we have a good chance — I think we have a trilat, there’s a good chance of maybe ending it.”
During an expanded meeting with the European leaders, Trump reiterated to Zelensky that if Monday’s meeting went well, he’d set up a trilateral meeting with Putin.
“If you like, I’ll go to that meeting,” Trump said. “Not that I want to do that, but I will do that.”
In his post on Truth Social on Monday night, Trump said he spoke with Putin and had begun “the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined” between Putin and Zelensky.
“After that meeting takes place,” Trump said, the three leaders would have a “trilat.”
Trump paused Monday’s meetings to call Putin
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak on the tarmac after they arrive at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump said he planned to call Putin after Monday’s discussions. But according to multiple news outlets, Trump paused his closed-door meeting with Zelensky and other European leaders to call Putin.
CNN reported that the Europeans were not present for the conversation between Trump and Putin. Trump later said that it would have been “disrespectful” to Putin to make the call with the group present.
In a statement, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov described Monday’s phone conversation between Trump and Putin as “frank and very constructive,” adding that the two leaders had agreed to appoint more senior negotiators for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine. But Ushakov did not say anything about a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, which Trump has identified as the next step in the peace process.
In an interview on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, Trump described his conversation with Putin as “a very good call.”
“I told him that we’re going to set up a meeting with President Zelensky, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting, if everything works out OK, I’ll meet and we’ll wrap it up,” Trump said.
“It takes, in this case, two to tango,” Trump said of Putin and Zelensky. “They have to have somewhat of a relationship, otherwise we’re just wasting a lot of time.”
Trump says ‘all of us would obviously prefer’ a ceasefire after telling Zelensky it was ‘unnecessary’
Trump at a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders in the East Room of the White House on Monday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Before his Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, Trump said that a ceasefire would be “unnecessary” in order to reach a “peace” agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“I don’t think you need a ceasefire,” Trump said.
But during his meeting with Zelensky and European leaders about an hour later, Trump said: “All of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.”
The president said that a ceasefire agreement would “immediately stop the killing” in the three-and-a-half-year conflict, before reiterating his earlier assertion that the parties could still work out a peace deal without one.
“Maybe something like [a ceasefire] could happen,” Trump said. “As of this moment, it’s not happening.”
Trump is caught on a hot mic whispering that Putin ‘wants to make a deal for me’
French President Emmanuel Macron and Trump on Monday. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Before Trump’s private meeting with European leaders got underway, a hot mic caught Trump discreetly telling French President Emmanuel Macron why he is optimistic that Putin won’t stand in the way of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump implied that Putin wants his U.S. counterpart to pocket a diplomatic win.
“I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump was heard whispering to Macron in the East Room. “I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”
Macron, for his part, remained skeptical.
“When I look at the situation and the facts, I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now,” Macron told NBC News on Monday after the White House discussions. “But perhaps I’m too pessimistic.”
Zelensky calls White House meetings ‘truly a significant step toward ending the war’
President Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy upon his arrival at the White House on Monday. (Alexander Drago /Reuters)
In his post on X, Zelensky said, “This was truly a significant step toward ending the war and ensuring the security of Ukraine and our people.”
Zelensky did not say a meeting with Putin was imminent. But he pointed to the progress made at the White House talks.
“We are already working on the concrete content of the security guarantees,” Zelensky said. “Today, we continue coordination at the level of leaders. There will be discussions, and we are preparing the relevant formats. We will also continue working tomorrow. National security advisors are also in constant contact now. There will be security guarantees.”
He added, “I thank all our partners for their determination and support. Ukraine feels this strength. And we will do everything to make the path to peace a reality — through partnership, through security guarantees, and through the courage of the Ukrainian people.”