Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting Live: Security Guarantees On The Table As European Leaders Huddle At White House

A prisoner exchange could take place with trilateral meeting with Putin.

“When a trilateral meeting is agreed, there will also be prisoner exchanges too. I know that there is over a thousand prisoners and I know they are going to release them,” Trump said of Ukrainians held in Russia.

“Maybe they are going to release them very soon – like immediately,” he added, BBC reported.

The European leaders at the multilateral meeting at the White House sent out a subtle message to Donald Trump that “supporting peace means first supporting Ukraine”.

“If we want to reach peace and if we want to guarantee justice, we have to do it united,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Trump. “We are on the side of Ukraine.”

Italian PM Meloni thanked Donald Trump for his efforts to stop the war in Ukraine.

“It is an important day — a new phase — after three years that we didn’t see any kind of sign from the Russian side that they were willing for dialogue, so something is changing — something has changed — thanks to you,” she said during the multilateral.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that there should be a quadrilateral meeting, in which security guarantees are given not just to Ukraine alone but to the whole of Europe.

“I think as a follow up, we would need probably a quadrilateral meeting. Because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,” he said, CNN reported.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the European leaders during multilateral with Trump that the path is open for more serious negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He said that the European leaders were eager to see a ceasefire before further talks are held.

“I can’t imagine that the next meeting will take place without a ceasefire,” he said. “So let’s work on that.”

Donald Trump outlined at the start of the meeting what they would discuss. He said that deliberations will be held on potential security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial exchanges.

“I’m optimistic that, collectively, we can reach an agreement,” he told the leaders.

Donald Trump told the European leaders that a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is “very attainable” in the near future at the end of the war.

“All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace… President Zelensky and President Putin can talk a little bit more about that… But I believe a peace agreement at the end of all of this is something that’s very attainable and it can be done in the near future,” he said.

Donald Trump said that it is a question of “when, not if” a trilateral meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy and himself is set up.

“I think it’s going to be when, not if,” Trump said.

After his bilateral, Zelenskyy said that he had a “very good conversation” with Trump ahead of the multilateral Summit with European leaders today.

“I think that we had a very good conversation with President Trump. We spoke about very sensitive points,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Donald Trump, as he posed for a group photo with the European leaders, hinted at a possible resolution on the security guarantees for Ukraine that could be reached today.

“We will come to a resolution today, I think, on almost everything, including probably the security,” CNN quoted Trump as saying in the East Room alongside Zelensky and European leaders.

US President Donald Trump is meeting European leaders, who have arrived in Washington DC for peace talks for Ukraine, after holding a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy.

Their key agenda for today’s meet is to seek a NATO-like security guarantee for Ukraine, so that the prospect of any future invasion by Russia could be ended.

Air raid alarms were sounded in parts of Ukraine during Trump-Zelenskyy talks.

The Ukrainian Air Force had issued a warning that there was a threat of Russia using ballistic missiles, BBC reported.

A bilateral meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is underway at the White House.

This will be followed by a multilateral meeting with other European leaders who have arrived in Washington DC, seeking security guarantees for Kyiv.

Kirill Dmitriev, a key aide to Vladimir Putin, shared a remark made by Donald Trump a short while back in the presence of Zelenskyy, downplaying the importance of a ceasefire.

“All of the peace deals I made were made without a ceasefire,” Dmitriev shared this quote from Trump.

Donald Trump said that he had thought stopping the Russia-Ukraine war would be the “easiest” one for him but acknowledged that it was “tough”.

“The war (Russia-Ukraine) is going to end. When it ends, I can’t tell you but the war is going to end and this gentleman wants it to end and Vladimir Putin wants it to end. I think the whole world is tired of it. We are going to get it ended. I have ended 6 wars and I thought that maybe this would be the easiest one. And it’s not the easiest one. It’s a tough one,” he said.

Donald Trump rejected the need for an urgent ceasefire in Ukraine.

“I don’t think you need a ceasefire. If you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires … I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason: because you’d stop killing people immediately,” he said.

Zelenskyy said that the European leaders who are in Washington DC on Monday have coordinated their positions ahead of meeting with Donald Trump at the White House.

He said that the goal of the meeting was a “reliable and lasting peace” for Ukraine and all of Europe.

The residents of Washington DC trolled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a giant poster, which read, “WEAR A SUIT BRO.” This was in the context of a spat with the US President at Oval Office on February 28 this year. He was trolled back then for not wearing a suit while meeting Trump.

European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the European leaders were in Washington DC on Monday to work on a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.

Ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump, Italy’s PM Meloni said that they were all on the side of Ukraine and they hail Trump’s efforts for a resolution of the conflict.

“West is a tool to build peace and guarantee justice. We are on the side of Ukraine, we support the efforts of the President of the United States,” she said, BBC reported.

US President Donald Trump is rewarding his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, rather than punishing him, for failing to meet the US’ deadline for agreeing to a ceasefire.

“It’s profoundly disconcerting what’s happened in the past two weeks. Trump has completely abandoned his demand for a rapid ceasefire, and his threat to impose sanctions, and is increasingly taking Putin’s view that instead the war (in Ukraine) can only be ended by a ‘comprehensive settlement.’” Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNN.

The White House said that the US officials will be present at the Oval Office when Donald Trump meets Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.

On the US side, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and special envoy Keith Kellogg will participate, BBC reported.

On the Ukrainian side, Zelenskyy will have the company of his top chief of staff Andriy Yermak, head of the Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov