{"id":354953,"date":"2025-08-18T19:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/354953\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T19:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:58:20","slug":"trump-tells-zelenskyy-ceasefire-not-needed-for-russia-ukraine-peace-deal-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/354953\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tells Zelenskyy ceasefire not needed for Russia-Ukraine peace deal | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has welcomed Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> to the White House but appeared to rule out arranging a ceasefire as part of plans to try to end the country\u2019s war with Russia.<\/p>\n

The US president\u2019s meeting with Zelenskyy on Monday went more smoothly than their first encounter in the Oval Office six months ago, when the Ukrainian leader was ambushed and berated by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This time, doubtless to the relief of European leaders gathered at the White House<\/a>, Zelenskyy gave Trump effusive thanks for the invitation and the pair even shared good-humoured banter while Vance remained silent.<\/p>\n

But the US president, who only last week warned Russia of \u201cvery severe consequences\u201d if President Vladimir Putin<\/a> failed to agree to a ceasefire at their summit in Alaska, made clear that he had reversed his position.<\/p>\n

Asked about the potential for a ceasefire, Trump referred to other conflicts which he claimed to have ended, telling reporters: \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019d need a ceasefire. If you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war \u2013 I didn\u2019t do any ceasefires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand, strategically, one country or the other wouldn\u2019t want it. You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and, you know, maybe they don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason, because you\u2019d stop killing people immediately, as opposed to in two weeks or one week, or whatever it takes. But we can work a deal, we\u2019re working on a peace deal while they\u2019re fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hastily assembled meeting came after Trump met with Putin in Anchorage<\/a> and said that the onus would now be on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions that he said could end the war.<\/p>\n

Trump has made a habit of carrying out high-stakes diplomacy before the cameras with a series of leaders who arrive in the Oval Office to face reporters\u2019 questions. Monday was no different.<\/p>\n

Asked by a journalist if it would be the \u201cend of the road\u201d for US support for Ukraine<\/a> if no deal is struck, Trump said it was \u201cnever the end of the road. People are being killed and we want to stop that. So I would not say it\u2019s the end of the road \u2026 I know the president, I know myself, and I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump added: \u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that if there\u2019s peace, that peace is going to stay long-term \u2026 We\u2019re not talking about a two-year peace and then we end up in this mess again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also expressed hope that their talks, which will also involve Keir Starmer and other European leaders, could lead to a trilateral meeting with Putin. \u201cI think if everything works out well today we\u2019ll have a trilat, and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said: \u201cWe are ready for trilateral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump added: \u201cI just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we\u2019re going to have a phone call right after these meetings today \u2013 and we may or may not have a trilat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy outlined what he said his country needed to feel secure, which included a \u201cstrong Ukrainian army\u201d through weapons sales and training. The second part, he said, would depend on the outcome of Monday\u2019s talks and any guarantees European Union countries, Nato and the US would be able to offer to the war-torn country.<\/p>\n

Trump declined to rule out sending US troops to Ukraine, noting it would be a discussion point with European leaders. \u201cWe\u2019ll let you know that, maybe, later today. We\u2019re meeting with seven great leaders of great countries, also, and we\u2019ll be talking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThey want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we\u2019ll help them out with that. I think its very important to get the deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stark contrast to the acrimony in February<\/a>, there were also lighter moments. Brian Glenn, a pro-Trump TV reporter, told Zelenskyy that \u201cyou look fabulous in that suit\u201d. Glenn had asked the Ukrainian leader about his clothing during his last visit to the Oval Office, implying that his casual dress was disrespectful.<\/p>\n

Trump jumped in, saying: \u201cI said the same thing.\u201d Turning to Zelenskyy, Trump said: \u201cThat\u2019s the one that attacked you last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that,\u201d Zelenskyy said, before addressing Glenn: \u201cYou see I changed; you are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European leaders held a preparatory meeting with the Ukrainian president in Washington on Monday morning, while Zelenskyy also met Trump\u2019s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy described the talks at the White House as \u201cvery serious\u201d and sought to flatter Trump by echoing his trademark \u201cpeace through strength\u201d language.<\/p>\n

But Trump had alarmed Kyiv and European capitals in recent days by repeating a number of Russian talking points.<\/p>\n

He said on Sunday that Zelenskyy could end the war \u201calmost immediately, if he wants to\u201d but that, for Ukraine, there was \u201cno getting back\u201d Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and \u201cNO GOING INTO NATO\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fiona Hill, a Russia expert former deputy assistant to the president, told the Politico website: \u201cTrump has completely ceded narrative control <\/strong>to Putin. What Ukraine is just basically getting as a concession is for the Russians to stop fighting. And this is Putin\u2019s way all the way through the 25 years of his presidency, which is: \u2018I\u2019m going to beat you up and my concession is that I stopped beating you up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has welcomed Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House but appeared to rule out arranging a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-354953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115051541586735688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}