As the world holds breath and watches Trump Zelensky’s rematch in an oval office on Monday, EU leaders listened to them from next door, with the two presidents turning the script of their previous tragic screams, highlighting the historical gravity of the events and their determination to make their relationship work.
“Substantial progress is being made,” US President Donald Trump welcomed Ukrainian counterpart Voldymi Zelenkie at the White House, saying it was the first time that the US could intervene to ensure Ukraine’s security.
“Europe is the front line of defense,” Trump said, “But we will help, we will be involved,” he added, as he did not reject the idea of the US peacekeeping forces on the ground in Ukraine.
After Trump and Zelensky finished their bilateral meetings, they joined seven European leaders who came to Washington with Ukrainian leaders, demonstrating European unification support for both Ukraine and the US president’s peace deal efforts.
“I think European countries will bear a lot of burden,” Trump said.
“We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very safe.”
Trump added that one point he discussed with Washington leaders tonight is “who does what.”
Zelenskyy said security assurance is an important part of “very good conversations.”
“We talked about a very sensitive point. The first point is security guarantees. Ukrainian security depends on the leaders who are with us in the United States and you and our minds,” emphasized the Ukrainian president.
In particular, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to the Kremlin to accept Ukraine’s security guarantees.
“A very important step is that President Putin believes that Russia has agreed to accept Ukraine’s security guarantee,” the US president explained.
However, just as European leaders together with Zelensky and Trump discussed “who do what” in terms of these assurances, Moscow has issued a statement that it will not accept any scenarios related to the deployment of Ukrainian NATO member forces.
“(This) could lead to an uncontrollable escalation of conflict with unpredictable outcomes,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakhalova said Monday.
Will Trump and Zelensky meet Putin?
The US President reiterated that after discussions between Zelensky and European leaders, the next step was to lead Putin over the phone.
“And we may or may not be holding a trilateral meeting — if we don’t have a trilateral meeting, the fight continues. And if we do, if we have a good chance, I think we have a good chance, we may end it,” Trump said.
Zelensky said he is ready for the trilateral preparation between President Putin and Trump. In the past, the Ukrainian president has repeatedly called for in-person meetings with Putin. Putin refused every time, including when Zelensky went to Türkiye, and when he asked for a face-to-face sit-in with Putin.
The Russian president has only agreed to a meeting with Trump in Alaska last Friday.
In a speech Monday at the White House, Trump said he hopes that a trilateral meeting will be held as soon as possible, and that this will allow for discussion on the territory.
“We also need to discuss possible exchanges of territory,” Trump noted, suggesting that it is based on the current frontline and the land occupied by Russia.
“It means seeing them and negotiating a position, now it’s pretty obvious and very sad.”
What the US president calls “land swapping” is perhaps the most complicated aspect of possible transactions, as it includes only Ukraine’s territorial concessions and there is no compromise in Russia.
Possible negotiations on this issue will definitely take quite a while. That’s why Zelensky and European leaders said they wanted a ceasefire first.
Trump, who initially supported the idea of a ceasefire, appears to have changed his mind, instead after meeting with Putin in Alaska and then proceeding to promote peace deals.
The US president confirmed the change in strategy on Monday, saying, “We will all clearly prefer an immediate ceasefire. That could happen while we are working on lasting peace. At this moment, it’s not happening.”
European leaders tried to return Trump’s peace efforts to an initial approach, claiming that without a ceasefire, Putin had time to intensify the war.
“If you look at the six deals I settled this year, they were all in war. I didn’t put a ceasefire,” Trump said, telling Zelensky, “I don’t think there’s a ceasefire needed.”
When the two leaders finished speaking at the White House, Russia launched dozens of drones in Ukrainian cities and launched yet another one-night attack.