The White House witnessed a day of high profile diplomacy on Monday as US President Donald Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky along with key European leaders to discuss a potential ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump received Zelenskky at the White House and greeted him with a handshake.
First, Trump and Zelenskky held a bilateral with Zelenskky, which will be followed by the US President’s multilateral meeting with European leaders.
During his bilateral meeting with Zelensky, Trump said that there is good chance “something” can come of the meeting.
“It’s an honour to have the President of Ukraine with us. We have had a lot of good discussions, a lot of good talks. I think progress is being made, very substantial progress in many ways. We had a good meeting just a short while ago with the President of Russia. I think, there is a possibility that something could come out of it and today’s meeting is very important. We have seven very powerful leaders from Europe and are going to be meeting with them right after this meeting…,” he said.
Trump said that if today’s meeting goes well, there a trilateral would be held among Ukraine, Russia and the US.
“If everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat — and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” he added.
The US President is also expected to call his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin rught after his meeting with Zelenskky and European leaders.
The meeting comes just three days after the high-stakes summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska, where they discussed ways to end the Ukraine war.
Among the European leaders arriving at the White House for Trump-Zelenskky talks were British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
President Donald J. Trump welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House pic.x.com/tqbdBCZyg2
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 18, 2025
The talks are crucial given that the Alaska summit did not produce the outcome the US President had sought. Ahead of the meeting with Putin, Trump had said he wanted a ceasefire agreement, but no breakthrough was achieved.
Both leaders, however, claimed that “significant progress” was made toward ending the Ukraine conflict. Putin is believed to have reiterated his conditions for peace, which include Ukraine abandoning its NATO ambitions, ceding territories currently held by Russian forces, and recognizing Crimea and the Donbas region as part of the Russian Federation.
Zelenskyy has firmly rejected these demands, stating that Ukrainians will never agree to ceding territory or legitimizing Russian occupation of their land.
European leaders, meanwhile, have expressed concern that Trump may pressure Zelenskyy into making territorial concessions to Russia. They have also sought clarity on Ukraine’s future security guarantees.
Earlier on Sunday, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy who accompanied the US President to Alaska, claimed that Putin had agreed to allow the US and Europe to provide “robust security guarantees” to Ukraine.
However, Moscow has yet to confirm this, fueling concerns among Zelenskyy’s European allies.