Trump hosts Zelensky, other leaders at White House after Putin summit

Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House today. Several points of contention arose after his meeting with Putin on Friday.

Following Friday’s summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. Zelensky was joined by several European leaders: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The other leaders came to bolster Zelensky’s case, and possibly to avoid a repeat of the blow-up during Zelensky’s meeting with Trump in February. Secretary Rutte in particular has managed to cultivate an unusually smooth working relationship with Trump.

During their Oval Office meeting, Zelensky profusely thanked Trump for his efforts to end the war. He also passed on a letter from his wife intended for First Lady Melania Trump, who wrote a letter to Putin raising the plight of Ukrainian children taken to Russia. Trump hand delivered that letter to Putin at last week’s summit.

Trump and Zelensky then proceeded to a one-on-one meeting behind closed doors, which Zelensky told the press afterwards was “a very good conversation. Maybe the best one.”

Trump and Zelensky then met with the other leaders. The agenda of this meeting was dominated by discussions of security guarantees for Ukraine and the need for a ceasefire before proceeding to negotiations. Trump insisted that a ceasefire was not necessary to achieve a peace deal. Other leaders said that without a ceasefire, Putin would continue to seize more Ukrainian territory unti a deal was signed. Trump said that European countries should carry most of the peacekeeping burden, but that the US will help. When asked, Trump did not rule out having US troops participate directly.

Trump said he hopes to arrange a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky in the near future. If all goes well in that meeting, he would then arrange a trilateral summit in which he would take part.

Points of contention

Over the weekend, European officials leaked to the press what Trump had told them about his discussion with Putin. One contentious subject was Putin’s demand that Ukraine cede the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk (which comprise the disputed Donbass region), including the portions of Donetsk where Russia has not yet managed to establish military control. In exchange, Putin would freeze the line of control in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, of which Russia controls the lion’s share.

European leaders told the New York Times that Trump supported this plan. Zelensky has said many times that territorial concessions were not acceptable as part of a peace plan.

Russia declared the annexation of all four territories in 2022. Currently, Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognized territory.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said that Ukraine must give up any ideas of regaining Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. He also said they must forget about ever joining NATO. Ukraine’s prospects of joining NATO has been a long-standing source of friction for Putin. He has blamed the eastward expansion of NATO since the dissolution of the Soviet Union for imperiling Russia’s security and forcing him to take a number of aggressive actions, including his 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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