Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is prepared to join Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a joint summit to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky made the pledge during hastily arranged talks with the US president at the White House, following Trump’s meeting with Putin last Friday. When Trump suggested all three leaders could gather if their discussions went well, Zelensky responded: “We are ready for trilateral,” as quoted by the Independent.
The Oval Office meeting was markedly more cordial than the two leaders’ last encounter in February.
Trump said he was “honoured” to have European leaders in Washington, where heads of state from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the EU and Nato had convened in solidarity with Ukraine.
“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,” Trump told reporters. “We’re not talking about a two-year peace… We’re going to 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.”
Moscow, however, issued a statement saying it would “oppose any scenarios” that placed Nato troops in Ukraine, undercutting speculation that Putin might accept security guarantees for Kyiv.
Pressed on that point, Trump said there would be “a lot of help when it comes to security” in any settlement but stressed that Europe would be “the first line of defence,” with the US offering support. He also hinted Kyiv’s Nato membership was unlikely: “We’re going to be discussing it today, but we will give them very good protection, very good security.”
European leaders signalled they wanted a ceasefire built into any trilateral talks. German chancellor Friedrich Mertz called it essential, while France’s Emmanuel Macron floated expanding discussions into a quadrilateral summit “because of the importance to the security of the Continent.”
Ahead of the meetings, Zelensky posted on social media: “We must stop the killings, and I thank our partners who are working toward this and ultimately toward a reliable and dignified peace… Ukraine is ready for a real truce and for establishing a new security architecture. We need peace.”
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