UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is prepared to meet directly with his Russian counterpart to help end the war between the two countries, following talks with United States President Donald Trump and several European leaders at the White House late Monday.
A face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin would mark their first encounter since Russia’s invasion more than three and a half years ago.
French President Emmanuel Macron, during the meeting in Washington on Monday with European officials, announced that France and Britain would convene a meeting on Tuesday with about 30 of Kyiv’s allies for discussions on long-term security guarantees for Ukraine.
Macron said the virtual meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” would serve to “keep them informed of the decisions made. Immediately afterward, we’ll begin concrete work with the Americans.”
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are co-hosting the meeting to “discuss next steps” for Ukraine, a UK government spokesperson told journalists, as Kyiv looks to secure allies’ support in enforcing any potential peace deal.
Macron proposed Geneva as a possible venue for peace talks but emphasised that it was “up to Ukraine” to decide on any territorial concessions, including areas of the eastern Donbas region still under its control.
He described Putin as “a predator, an ogre at our gates,”, adding that the Russian leader “has constantly been a force for destabilisation. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power.”
He argued further that Putin rarely honoured his commitments.”
United States President Donald Trump who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart, assured President Volodymyr Zelensky that the US would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any agreement to end the war, during a meeting in Washington on Monday.
“When it comes to security, there’s going to be a lot of help. They are a first line of defence because they’re there, but we’ll help them out” Trump told reporters, adding that European countries would be involved.
Zelenskiy described the promise as “a major step forward,” noting that the guarantees would be “formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days” also revealing that Ukraine offered to buy about $90 billion worth of US weapons.
The ICIR reports that Zelensky handled Monday’s meeting more effectively than his February Oval Office encounter, which was cut short after Trump and Vance publicly rebuked him for what they saw as a lack of gratitude.
When asked what his message was to the people of Ukraine, Trump replied, “We love them.” Zelensky expressed his thanks, and Trump placed a hand on his back in a gesture of warmth before the two headed into the Oval Office.
Recall that Trump, who met with Putin in Alaska last week, wrote on his Truth Social platform after Monday’s meetings that “everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.”
“After the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” he added.
Trump announced plans to host a three-way summit with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
The ICIR reported that the war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, has reached a near stalemate despite some recent Russian gains, resisting Trump’s efforts to bring it to an end.
Although the Kremlin has not formally confirmed its participation, a senior US administration official said the Putin-Zelensky meeting could be held in Hungary.
The most recent direct talks between Russia and Ukraine were held in Turkey in June, where Putin rejected Zelensky’s public call for a face-to-face meeting and instead dispatched a low-level delegation.
Meanwhile, European leaders, who were at Washington to support Zelensky, pushed Trump to demand that Putin agree to a ceasefire in the three-and-a-half-year war before any negotiations could move forward.
Trump had earlier supported that proposal but shifted his stance after meeting with Putin on Friday, aligning with Moscow’s view that any peace deal should be comprehensive.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, he said he supported the idea of a ceasefire but believed negotiations toward a peace agreement could continue even as fighting persisted.
Before the White House meeting, Trump had pressed Ukraine to relinquish Crimea and drop its bid to join NATO, two of Putin’s central demands.
Zelensky emphasised that in his one-on-one meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, he was able to give the US president a clearer picture of the battlefront.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.