Volodymyr Zelensky said he was prepared to meet Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a joint summit to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president made the pledge during talks with his US counterpart at the White House, hastily convened after President Trump’s encounter with Putin last Friday.
When Mr Trump suggested that all three leaders could gather if Monday night’s talks went well, Mr Zelensky added: “We are ready for trilateral.”
The cordial meeting between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump was a world away from the unseemly shouting match which took place in February, and preceded talks between the two men and European leaders from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the EU and Nato, who had all flown to Washington DC in a show of solidarity for Ukraine.
Mr Trump said he was “honoured” to have so many senior European leaders in one place at the same time.
There were broad smiles between him and Mr Zelensky as the US president mostly resisted the temptation to lecture Ukraine’s leader and further reiterated his support for an unspecified role in “security guarantees” for Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
However, his words came moments after the Russian foreign ministry said it would “oppose any scenarios” which allowed Nato troops on Ukraine’s soil to protect the country.
The statement from Moscow undermined what Mr Trump may believe he had extracted from Putin at their meeting in Anchorage last Friday, when his staff suggested Putin might accept Nato security guarantees for Kyiv.
The Russian retort was timed for release just as the foreign leaders were crossing the threshold of the White House.
But as he met Mr Zelensky in the Oval Office not long after, Mr Trump told reporters that both Europe and the United States would be involved in securing a postwar peace for Ukraine, even if American troops would not be put on the ground to maintain that peace.
“We’re going to work with Ukraine. We’re going to work with everybody, and we’re going to make sure that if there’s peace, the peace is going to stay long term. This is very long term,” he said.
“We’re not talking about a two-year peace, and then we end up in this mess again. We’re going to make sure that everything’s good. We’ll work with Russia. We’re going to work with Ukraine. We’re going to make sure it works. And I think if we can get to peace, it’s going to work. I have no doubt about it.”
Pressed further on any guarantees for Kyiv by reporters, Mr Trump said there would be “a lot of help when it comes to security” in any postwar settlement, but stressed that Europe would “be the first line of defence”, albeit with some American assistance.
At the same time, the American leader seemed to rule out a future Nato membership bid for Kyiv, echoing a social media post he’d made earlier in the day, while hedging and telling the press that there hadn’t been any such discussions yet.
“We’re going to be discussing it today, but we will give them very good protection, very good security,” he said.
Mr Trump added that the European leaders who were waiting to meet with him and Mr Zelensky were “very like-minded” on the matter.
He also said he’d be speaking with Putin after his meetings with Mr Zelensky and the assembled European leaders.
For his part, Mr Zelensky laid out the parameters for Europe and Ukraine in a social media post just before he arrived at the White House after meeting foreign leaders in the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC.
“We must stop the killings, and I thank our partners who are working toward this and ultimately toward a reliable and dignified peace,” he said.
“Together with the leaders of Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy, the European Commission, and the Nato secretary general, we coordinated our positions ahead of the meeting with President Trump. Ukraine is ready for a real truce and for establishing a new security architecture. We need peace.”
