President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the White House along other European leaders in an extensive meeting with President Donald Trump. President Trump is trying to enforce a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine by forcing Ukraine to capitulate with territorial concessions. President Zelensky has reiterated that Ukraine will not make territorial concessions and European leaders have backed President Zelensky on this position. The meeting of today follows the meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday.
In an initial press conference between President Zelensky and President Trump the atmosphere was upbeat unlike the last press conference between the two presidents at the Oval Office last February. President Zelensky started the press conference by thanking First Lady Melania Trump over her later to Vladimir Putin urging him to release the abducted Ukrainian children. A very limited pool of journalists asked questions to President Zelensky including Brian Glenn, who in the last press conference, asked him why he didn’t wear a suit. Brian Glenn asked President Zelensky about elections while another reporter asked him on why does he keep prolonging the war by sending troops to the frontlines, inverting the blame of the war over Ukraine. President Zelensky avoided any arguments despite these confrontative and biased questions.
Answering questions to the press, President Trump said that he prefers a peace deal to a ceasefire, and said that a ceasefire could serve as a disadvantage to one side or another. During the initial press conference President Trump did not rule out US troops for security guarantees to Ukraine.
Following the initial press conference, President Trump and President Zelensky walked into another room where they sat a table along with European leaders who included President Emmanuel Macron, Premier Giorgia Meloni, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Premier Alexander Stubb, Premier Keir Starmer, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark-Rutte.
President Trump and European leaders mentioned NATO Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine and President Macron and Chancellor Merz referred to a ceasefire seemingly contradicting Trump’s earlier statements. President Macron also said that security guarantees for Ukraine are security guarantees for Europe and that a trilateral meeting should follow with a quadrilateral meeting with Putin to discuss European security.
There were no conclusive statements on territorial concessions that differed from the previous statements. President Trump is proposing a trilateral meeting between the US, Ukraine and Russia with President Zelensky saying that Ukraine is ready for this meeting.
Live news reports state that President Trump has broken the ongoing meeting with European leaders to talk with Vladimir Putin in private. The meeting between President Trump, President Zelensky and European leaders at the White House is ongoing.
The meeting has concluded and President Zelensky and other European leaders will be staying in Washington for further talks.
Newsroom
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