Trump calls for trilateral talks with Putin and Zelensky at White House meeting
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The news: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for high-stakes talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At the hastily arranged meeting, days after hosting Putin in Alaska, Trump was expected to press Ukraine to reach a resolution on terms more favourable to Moscow.
“Zelensky can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump tweeted hours before the meeting. “But it’s clear he will not get back Crimea, or the Russian-speaking areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, and there will be no NATO for Ukraine. Time to make a deal.”
What they said: During a press conference conducted by the two leaders, Trump said there was a “possibility that something could come out of” his earlier talks with Putin, and expressed hope for a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky to achieve a peace deal.
“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,” Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked to his right by Zelensky, and to his left by US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“I just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we're going to have a phone call right after these meetings today, and we may or may not have a trilat."
“He’s expecting my call when we’re finished with this meeting,” Trump said.
Zelensky thanked Trump for his “personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war,” adding he was “ready for a trilateral.” He also said Ukraine needed “everything” in terms of postwar security guarantees, including training and intelligence sharing.
Just hours before the meeting, Russian strikes on Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia killed at least 10 civilians, including two children. Zelensky called the overnight attacks a “cynical” attempt to undermine the talks.
The sources: Bloomberg, The New York Times, Reuters
