Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top European leaders met with United States President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss plans to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
During the meeting, Trump assured Zelensky that the U.S. would help ensure Ukraine’s security in a peace deal without committing to full American military support for Ukraine.
Writing on social media on Monday evening after a day of intense diplomacy in Washington, Trump said America would provide “co-ordination” for Europe’s security guarantees.
The U.S. president convened the meeting after last week’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where Putin rejected the idea of a ceasefire before reaching a comprehensive peace deal and urged Ukraine to surrender territory in the east in exchange for freezing the front line elsewhere.
Trump and Zelenskyy’s interactions were notably warmer on Monday than during their tense encounter at the White House in February, with the US president even praising his counterpart’s suit.
Here are the key takeaways:
Trump says US will give Ukraine ‘very good protection’
Trump said the US would back Europe in protecting Ukraine as part of a deal to end the war with Russia.
“When it comes to security, there’s going to be a lot of help,” Trump said, describing European countries as the “first line of defense”.
“We have people waiting in another room, right now, they’re all here from Europe,” Trump added. “Biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it, and we’ll help them out with that.”
Zelensky hailed the pledge as “a major step forward”.
Trump also said that US support for Ukraine would continue regardless of the outcome of the talks.
“It’s never the end of the road. People are being killed, and we want to stop that. So, I would not say it was the end of the road. I think we have a good chance of doing it,” he said.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the priority must be to stop the killing, as well as the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure, thanking Trump for having “broken the deadlock”.
