US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he has started arranging a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart in a bid to end the ongoing war, hours after he met Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Washington, DC.
Trump said that the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine was discussed during the meeting.
In his Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “I had a very good meeting with distinguished guests, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Friedrich Merz, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in the White House, which ended in a further meeting in the Oval Office.”
“During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America. Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine,” he said.
Speaking on arranging a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, he said: “At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said that discussing ‘security guarantees’ remains a key issue that could lead to the end of the war.
He wrote on X: “We discussed security guarantees. This is a key issue, a starting point towards ending the war. We appreciate the important signal from the United States regarding its readiness to support and be part of these guarantees.”
“A lot of attention today was given to the return of our children, to the release of prisoners of war and civilians held by Russia. We agreed to work on this. The U.S. President also supported a meeting at the level of leaders. Such a meeting is necessary to resolve sensitive issues,” he said.
The US President had met with Putin in Alaska last week.
Friday’s Alaska summit marked the first US-Russia meeting since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The three-hour session ended without a ceasefire, but Trump insisted that the talks had shifted the focus towards a broader settlement.
“It was determined by all that 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, which often times do not hold up,” Trump earlier wrote on Truth Social.
