US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office in Washington on Monday, days after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska ended without a breakthrough on Ukraine.
“President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., Oval Office, on Monday afternoon,” Trump posted on Truth Social. He added, “If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
“The best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement,” he said.
Earlier, Zelensky said he had a “long and substantive” call with Trump following the Alaska talks. The Ukrainian leader thanked Trump for the invitation and said the Washington meeting would be used to “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska
Earlier on Friday, Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin, who was in the US for the first time in a decade. But he gave little concrete detail afterward of what was discussed, and little was known as the two leaders parted about what would come next.
‘Positive’ US signals on security guarantees
Zelensky reiterated the importance of involving Europe — which, like the Ukrainian leader, wasn’t at the table at Friday’s summit.
“It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said. “We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
He didn’t elaborate, but Zelensky previously has said European partners put on hold a proposal to establish a foreign troop presence in Ukraine as a deterrence against future Russian aggression because it lacked an American backstop.
Zelensky said he spoke to Trump one-on-one and then in a call with other European leaders. In total the conversations lasted over an hour and a half.
‘No deal until there’s a deal’
Trump said in Alaska that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal”, after Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress”.
During an interview with Fox News Channel before heading back to Washington, Trump insisted that the responsibility going forward might be on Zelensky “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
Trump did not speak to reporters on his flight back to Washington. When his plane landed, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was on the phone with NATO leaders after a lengthy call with Zelensky.
Trump then disembarked Air Force One without speaking to reporters. He didn’t respond to shouted questions about the phone calls as he climbed into his limousine.
Whom did Trump speak to?
Trump spoke with Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte, European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said. She gave no details of the conversation.
Hopes for a three-way meeting
Zelensky voiced support for Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting with the US and Russia. He said “key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this.”
But Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Russian state television on Saturday that a potential trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky has not been raised in US-Russia discussions. “The topic has not been touched upon yet,” Ushakov said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
