Vladimir Putin has agreed to face-to-face talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss a peace deal in Ukraine, according to Donald Trump and European leaders, although Moscow has not confirmed the meeting.
The potential breakthrough came after a day of tense diplomacy at the White House in which Mr Trump ruled out a ceasefire while Mr Zelenskiy and his allies pushed for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term agreement.
The Ukrainian president said that following the talks, security guarantees for Kyiv would be “formalised” within 10 days.
“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 Zelenskiy,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that a trilateral meeting including the US president would follow.
RM Block
The Kremlin did not confirm that Russia would arrange for Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskiy to meet.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov has said Mr Putin and Mr Trump only discussed the “idea” of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Monday’s phone call. Russia’s Tass news agency quoted the aide as saying Mr Putin told the US president that he was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine.
British prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz appeared to confirm the meeting.
Mr Merz told reporters: “The American president spoke with the Russian president on the phone and agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks.”
Mr Trump also said the US would help arrange European security guarantees for Ukraine if peace could be agreed with Russia.
Writing on social media on Monday night after a day of intense diplomacy in Washington, Mr Trump said America would provide “co-ordination” for Europe’s security guarantees – but stopped short of a full commitment of American military support for Kyiv.
[ Four key takeaways from Trump’s White House summit on UkraineOpens in new window ]
The US president had been under pressure from Mr Zelenskiy and European allies to offer robust security guarantees to Ukraine in any peace deal, after he failed to secure a ceasefire from Mr Putin at a summit last week in Alaska.
Speaking alongside the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said the US would be “involved” in helping Ukraine defend itself but the burden would mainly be on Europe.
Later, on Truth Social, he wrote: “During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a co-ordination with the United States of America.”
Mr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening that security guarantees were a “key issue, a starting point” for ending the war.
“Security guarantees will probably be ‘unpacked’ by our partners, and more and more details will emerge. All of this will somehow be formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days,” Mr Zelenskiy said at broadcast press briefing after his meetings.
“It is important that the United States is sending a clear signal that it will be among the countries helping to co-ordinate and will also be a participant in the security guarantees for Ukraine,” Mr Zelenskiy said. “I believe this is a major step forward.”
[ Ukraine and Europe steer Trump peace bid away from immediate disaster for KyivOpens in new window ]
Although a peace deal appeared far from imminent after the meetings in Washington, Mr Zelenskiy said his Monday meeting with Mr Trump was his “best” so far. He also said Ukraine was ready to meet with Russia in “any format” and that territorial issues would be discussed on a bilateral level with Mr Putin – but no dates for a possible meeting with Moscow have been scheduled yet.
“The question of territories is something we will leave between me and Putin,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
He added that a part of security guarantees for Ukraine is an agreement to buy a package of US weapons “which primarily includes aircraft, air defence systems”, among others.
“There indeed is a package with our proposals worth $90 billion,” Mr Zelenskiy said. “And we have agreements with the US president that when our export opens, they will buy Ukrainian drones. This is important for us.”
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, who attended the talks in Washington with Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskiy and several European leaders, told Fox News that the group would work on the details of security guarantees for Ukraine “over the coming days” and reconvene virtually.
He added that putting troops on the ground would be part of Nato member talks.
Mr Trump’s push for a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents suggests he still sees a path to mediate a resolution to the conflict, which began when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia did not confirm that Mr Putin would meet Mr Zelenskiy, or was arranging a bilateral summit, even after the US and Russian presidents spoke on the phone on Monday.
Yuri Ushakov, Mr Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said only that the Kremlin agreed to “support direct talks” and “discussed the idea of raising the level of Russia’s and Ukraine’s representatives”.
Mr Merz said the Putin-Zelenskiy meeting could happen within two weeks, to be followed by a trilateral summit involving the US president.
“We do not know whether the Russian president has the courage to come to such a summit or not. That is why we must work to persuade him,” he said.
The US president’s comments did not indicate that Monday’s talks had reached agreement on the thorniest details of any possible settlement, including Mr Putin’s proposal that Ukraine cede more land to Russia in exchange for freezing the rest of the current frontline.
But a European official who was part of the delegation to Washington said territories had not been part of the discussions. The official said Europeans in the room were pleased that Mr Trump said: “That is not my business, that is a matter for Ukraine.”
While Mr Trump made no new threat to hit Russia’s economy with sanctions if Mr Putin continued to balk at ending the war, the European official said they believed that they had got the US president back to where he was before his summit in Alaska.
The more-than-six-hour meetings in Washington marked an urgent new diplomatic push by Mr Zelenskiy and European allies to win more support from Mr Trump amid alarm at the outcome of Friday’s Alaska summit.
The gathering of European leaders, which also included UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron, at the White House was the largest since last year’s Nato summit, when Joe Biden was president.
Several European leaders interrupted summer holidays to dash to Washington to present a united front with Mr Zelenskiy, who was berated by Mr Trump and his officials during an angry Oval Office confrontation in February.
The two leaders’ meeting in the Oval Office on Monday was warm and good-humoured.
The president has repeatedly stressed his desire to be taken seriously as a global peacemaker and several European leaders lauded him with compliments, in an apparent effort to improve the mood.
Mr Rutte said Mr Trump’s willingness to discuss security guarantees for Kyiv was a “breakthrough”.
Mr Trump had hoped to announce a trilateral summit with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, but ended up with a proposal to arrange the meeting between the other two leaders, at a location to be determined.
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a trilat, which would be the two presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years,” he said.
US vice-president JD Vance, who has become more closely involved in talks with Ukraine; secretary of state Marco Rubio; and special envoy Steve Witkoff would take charge of getting Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Putin together, Mr Trump said. – Financial Times/Reuters
