Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting Live: US President Meets European Leaders, Kyiv's Security Guarantees On Agenda

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

Donbas is a region in eastern Ukraine that comprises two regions — Donetsk and Luhansk. They were an industrial powerhouse in the Soviet era, rich in coal mines and steel mills, along with rich farmland, key rivers and a coastline on the Sea of Azov.

It was in this region that Russia put in efforts to “destabilise” Ukraine in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.

Pro-Russian militia came up in the region and quickly took over the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk.

For nearly 8 years, the enclaves witnessed fighting, sometimes fierce, between the Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces.

The Ukrainian data claimed that over 14,000 people died in the region, CNN reported.

There will be no Russian representative at the White House when the European leaders meet Trump today.

However, it may not matter as it appeared that Putin had enough impact on the US President in Alaska meeting that Russians would be confident their point of view would be adequately represented, BBC reported.

Trump has already asked Zelenskyy to leave out his wish to join the NATO — something which Russia has long wanted. Moscow also wants full control over the Donbas, which would mean that Kyiv has to give up the land it still controls in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on US special envoy Keith Kellogg ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump and other European leaders at the White House.

Zelenskyy said that today’s meeting with Trump will be the “first meeting in such a format” in which other European leaders will sit together with Trump over Ukraine war.

“When peace is discussed for one country in Europe, it means peace for all of Europe. We are ready to continue working with maximum effort to end the war and to ensure reliable security. These are the key issues,” he tweeted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet the European leaders, who have arrived at the DC to accompany him to Trump’s Summit. He is slated to meet the leaders ahead of the key sit-down with Trump at the White House, CNN reported, citing sources.

The meeting is expected to take place at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, DC.

The leaders are expected to coordinate their positions before their meeting with Trump later in the day.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will “fix” the Russia-Ukraine “disaster”.

“I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them. They are “STUPID” people, with no common sense, intelligence, or understanding, and they only make the current R/U disaster more difficult to FIX. Despite all of my lightweight and very jealous critics, I’ll get it done — I always do,” he wrote on Truth Social.

United Kingdom PM Keir Starmer said he is on his way to Washington DC for the White House Summit, hosted by President Donald Trump later today.

“It’s (war) impacted Ukrainians. But it has also impacted Europe, and family and community in the UK. So everybody wants this to end, not just Ukrainians,” he said in a video posted on X.

The European leaders, who will meet Donald Trump at the White House today, would want to secure NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine for a durable peace in the region.

They will push for Trump to incline towards Ukraine again so that Zelenskyy does not have to let go of the territories demanded by Putin in the Alaska Summit.

Trump earlier said that Putin wants the key Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas, AP reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, in which the latter briefed him about the details of his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska.

PM Modi reiterated India’s position for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through diplomacy and dialogue, and extended India’s support for all efforts in this regard.

Inna Sovsun told CNN that without security guarantees by the United States, discussions “make no sense”. Her remarks came hours before the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting at the White House today.

“Putin will start again: a new war in a week, a month, in a year, five years from now. We need to make sure that we will be protected from any other attack from the Russian side,” she said.

The upcoming discussion between President Trump and Zelenskyy seems to be focused on the kind of concessions Ukraine is willing to make to end the war rather than exploring options of a “real peace”, Inna Sovsun, member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told CNN.

“If the country that is defending itself will stop fighting, that will be capitulation — not the peace deal … We want the peace, but we need to make sure that it is a real peace, a real peace that will be long-lasting and stable,” she said.

Trump had given Putin the deadline to agree to a ceasefire by August 8 or face new sanctions on its “shadow fleet”. However, that did not happen, instead he announced that day that he would meet Putin in Alaska on Friday.

On Friday, ahead of his meeting with Trump he said that he wanted to see a ceasefire “rapidly” and he would not be happy if that did not happen. He also warned Russia of “serious consequences” if there was no ceasefire agreement that day.

On Saturday, Trump spoke with Zelenskyy and European leaders on his Summit with Putin. Zelenskyy and other allies announced that they would fly to Washington DC to meet Trump on Monday.

On Sunday, Special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that Putin had agreed to allow “robust” security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the possible deal, including an Article 5-type provision according to which the US and Europe could make collective defence of Ukraine if Russia invades Ukraine again.

However, late on Sunday, Trump said that Zelenskyy could end the war “immediately if he wants to” by leaving aside his hopes to join NATO.

The Russian attacks on key Ukrainian cities claimed at least 10 lives on Monday, Reuters reported.