Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he will visit Washington on Monday to meet with Donald Trump, following the U.S.-Russia summit that failed to secure a ceasefire or a plan for one in Ukraine.
He said Trump had invited him on Saturday in a phone call that lasted more than an hour and a half. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added.
On X, he said he and Trump would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”, adding: “I am grateful for the invitation.”
Zelenskyy Seeks Trilateral Meeting
Zelenskyy has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and U.S. leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his bilateral talks in Alaska with Putin were successful.
“Ukraine emphasises that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” Zelenskyy added in his post.
It was not clear, though, what Trump would be asking of Zelenskyy.
Trump said on Saturday that it had been decided at the summit that the best way to end the war was to proceed directly to a peace deal and not press for an immediate ceasefire.
Kyiv and its European allies, unlike Moscow, have until now insisted that negotiations must be preceded by a ceasefire.
The highly anticipated Trump-Putin summit, however, yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Russia’s war in Ukraine, although both leaders described the talks as productive before heading home.
In his statement after the summit, Putin did not signal any movement in Russia’s maximalist position, saying it was necessary to eliminate the “root causes” of the war and address Moscow’s “legitimate concerns”.
Trump Briefs Zelenskyy, NATO
Trump held the calls with Zelenskyy and U.S. allies on his way back to Washington, where he landed in the early hours of Saturday morning, the White House said. Zelenskyy described the over 90-minute call with Trump as “long and substantive.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine supported Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia. He also said he discussed with Trump the “positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing a source, that Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders during the phone call that Putin was not interested in a ceasefire but in a comprehensive agreement to end the war.
“I think a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire,” Trump said in the call, according to Ravid, who cited a source on the call without identifying that person.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron and leaders from Germany, Finland, Poland, Italy and Britain joined the call in which Trump briefed allies about the summit with Putin.
‘Nothing Happened’
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that, on the face of it, little had changed after the summit:
“As we expected, nothing happened. No results, and everyone stands their ground. Putin did not back down from his ultimatum, Trump wanted to show that he is a great dealmaker, but he failed.”
But the lawmaker said he was worried Putin had effectively emerged from his years-long isolation from the West, though Ukraine had seemingly avoided the “worst-case scenario” as it was not being coerced into a deal involving crushing concessions.
Trump had publicly hardened his stance towards Moscow in recent weeks, following months of verbally attacking Ukraine and its leadership. He threatened to sanction Russia heavily if Putin failed to make a deal.
But as his sanctions deadline for Moscow neared last week, the U.S. president instead invited Putin to a summit in Alaska at which he rolled out the red carpet.
With no deal reached at Friday’s summit, Trump said he did not need to think about the question of sanctions “right now”.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly underlined the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any deal, to deter Russia from launching a new invasion at some point in the future.
“We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security,” he said after his call with Trump.
(With inputs from Reuters)
