Trump proposes Putin-Zelenskyy
summit in push to end Ukraine war
US president says security guarantees for Kyiv could be provided by European countries with ‘coordination’ by Washington.
United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to convene a face-to-face summit between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his latest bid to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Trump’s proposal on Monday came as he hosted Zelenskyy and top European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, at the White House for high-stakes talks on ending the conflict, which has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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Trump said he had “begun arrangements” for the summit after speaking with Putin by phone, and that he would hold a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts following their two-way meeting.
“Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte separately confirmed that Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting, but did not specify a date or location.
Zelenskyy, who described his meeting with Trump as a “very good conversation”, told reporters that he was “ready” to meet the Russian leader one-on-one.
Moscow did not immediately confirm that it had agreed to a summit, but Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited presidential aide Yuri Ushakov as saying that Putin and Trump “spoke in favour of continuing direct talks” between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
The proposals for a summit, which would be the first meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy since Moscow’s invasion, came as the fraught issue of security guarantees for Ukraine took centre stage during the talks at the White House.
The specifics of what those guarantees would look like remained unclear on Monday.
Asked if the US could send peacekeepers to Ukraine, Trump said European countries would be the “first line of defence”, but that Washington would provide “a lot of help”.
“We’re going to help them out also, we’re going to be involved,” Trump said.
Trump said on Truth Social later that discussions had focused on which security guarantees would be provided by European countries with “coordination” by the US.
Zelenskyy said the guarantees would be “unpacked” by Kyiv’s partners and formalised within the next week to 10 days.
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