Trump tells Zelenskyy and European leaders that Putin 'accepts' security guarantees for Ukraine

LAST UPDATE | 19 hrs ago

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has accepted that there will be security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any agreement to end the war. 

He was speaking alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several European leaders at the White House ahead of high-stakes talks aimed at ending Russia’s war, just three days after he held a summit with Putin in Alaska.

“In a very significant step, President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine and this is one of the key points that we need to consider and we’re going to be considering that at the table, also who will do what essentially,” said Trump as he opened talks with the other leaders. 

“I think the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We’re going to help them and we’re going to make it very secure.”

Trump also said the US will be “involved” in some form of security guarantees for Ukraine as part of an agreement on ending the war. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian prime minister Georgia Miloni, Finland president Alexander Stubb and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte have accompanied Zelenskyy to Washington for the summit. 

Trump interrupted the meeting with European leaders to call Putin on efforts to reach a Ukraine deal, a source close to the talks said.

Before the talks began, Zelenskyy gave a positive assessment of his talks with Trump. 

“We had a very good conversation with President Trump, and it really was the best one – or, sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future,” Zelenskyy said as the expanded meeting with the other leaders got underway. 

Trump has adopted Putin’s position and is pushing Ukraine to make concessions, saying Kyiv must give up Crimea and abandon its NATO ambitions. He has also rowed back on his previous demands for a ceasefire in the conflict. 

Security guarantees

It’s understood that Putin has proposed that Ukraine would have to give up territory in the east of the country to achieve any agreement to end the war, something Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he would not do. 

Trump greeted Zelenskyy with a handshake as he arrived at the White House, with the Republican complimenting his Ukrainian counterpart on his black jacket.

Zelenskyy was criticised by right-wing media for failing to wear a suit during astonishing scenes in February, when the US president and his deputy JD Vance publicly berated the Ukrainian in the Oval Office.

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In a press conference with the two leaders before the one-to-one talks, Trump was asked if the US would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peace agreement. 

“There’ll be a lot of help when it comes to security. There’s going to be a lot of help. It’s going to be good,” he said. 

He said Europe are “the first line of defence because they’re there, but we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved when it comes.”

Without confirming if the security would involve US troops, Trump said his country would provide “very good protection, very good security” for Ukraine. 

Referring to the EU leaders and the leader of NATO, he added: “I think they’re very like-minded. They want to help out.”

During the press conference, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for hosting the talks. 

“Thank you for the invitation and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war,” he said. 

He also thanked the US First Lady Melania Trump, who last week penned a letter imploring Putin to “serve humanity himself” and urging him to restore peace to Ukraine – without mentioning the country. Trump said this letter was “greatly received” by Putin. 

Trilateral with Putin ‘if everything works out’

Zelenskyy handed Trump a letter from the Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska to give to his wife. 

Trump said that if his meeting with Zelenskyy goes well, he expects to hold a trilateral meeting with Putin.

“We’re going to have a meeting. I think 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 said it was a “hard thing” for Putin to come to Alaska last week, adding that he would speak to the Russian president “right after” his meeting. 

The European leaders held a preparatory meeting with the Ukrainian president in Washington this morning, while Zelenskyy also met Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.

Ahead of his meeting at the White House, Zelenskyy described the talks at the White House as “very serious” – and sought to flatter Trump by echoing his trademark “peace through strength” language.

“President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,” he said.

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The Ukrainian leader added that they would have “time to speak about the architecture of security guarantees. This is, really, the most important.”

Starmer told reporters on the plane to Washington: “We’ve got to make sure there is peace, that it is lasting peace, and that it is fair and that it is just.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said before going to the White House that a “small window of dialogue is opening” and that she backed the security guarantees idea.

Ten killed in Russian strikes

Reports had said Putin would be open to Western security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of any peace deal – but had ruled out Kyiv’s long-term ambition to join NATO.

Russia kept up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of the new talks. A drone strike on an apartment block in Kharkiv killed seven people, including a toddler, while three people were killed and 20 injured in a missile strike on Zaporizhzhia.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said the attack, which took place just before dawn, reduced part of the building to rubble and sparked fires on at least three floors. Russia fired four drones at the building.

Zelenskyy called the strikes an attempt to “humiliate diplomatic efforts.”

“The Russian war machine continues to destroy lives despite everything,” he said. “Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts.

That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings. That is why reliable security guarantees are required. That is why Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war.

“The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: “Stop.”

A Trump-Putin summit in Alaska last week failed to produced a ceasefire in the nearly three-and-a-half-year war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Afterwards, Trump dropped his previous insistence on a ceasefire in favor of seeking a complete peace deal, meaning negotiations could proceed while the war goes on. He also alarmed Kyiv and European capitals by repeating a number of Russian talking points.

Taking to Truth Social last night, Trump said Zelenskyy could end the war “almost immediately, if he wants to” but that, for Ukraine, there was “no getting back” Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and “NO GOING INTO NATO.”

With reporting from © AFP 2025

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