Zelenskyy and European leaders press for security guarantees in meeting with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, backed by an extraordinary delegation of European leaders, defended his nation’s interests at the White House on Monday as President Donald Trump pressed for a quick peace agreement with Russia that would require Ukraine to make significant concessions.

Unlike the last Oval Office meeting between the American and Ukrainian presidents in February, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy on live television, the meeting was outwardly cordial, with Trump warmly welcoming Zelenskyy to the West Wing after the Ukrainian arrived in a dark suit instead of his usual military clothing.

Zelenskyy arrived shortly after seven European leaders rushed to the White House to show support for Ukraine, amid concerns that Trump was more closely aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Putin flew to Alaska for a meeting with Trump last week.

The Europeans – including Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France, Friedrich Merz of Germany and Giorgia Meloni of Italy – have warned that if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, he could ultimately try to take more European territory by force. Several of the Europeans called for a security force to protect Ukraine from future Russian aggression.

“All of us want to finish this war – stop Russia,” Zelenskyy said Monday.

Trump paused the meeting with the Europeans and Zelenskyy on Monday to call Putin, according to two people familiar with the matter. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said the two men had a “frank and very constructive” 40-minute conversation about the negotiations with Zelenskyy and the European leaders. It was not clear, however, whether Putin had agreed to a direct meeting with Zelenskyy, which Trump wants to arrange.

In a post on social media after the meeting, Trump said that he, the Europeans and Zelenskyy had discussed “security guarantees for Ukraine, which guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States.”

“This was a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years,” Trump wrote.

Trump has not explained precisely how Russia and Ukraine could achieve a lasting peace. But Zelenskyy, now 31/2 years into a war instigated by Russia, is expected to face pressure from Trump to surrender territory to Russia in exchange for American security guarantees. If not, Zelenskyy risks reigniting Trump’s anger.

Trump said Monday that Zelenskyy and the European leaders would discuss “the possible exchanges of territory” and consider the current “war lines.”

Zelenskyy said that territorial concessions, perhaps the most sensitive issue in the talks, would be settled in a potential future meeting with Putin. Zelenskyy doesn’t have the unilateral authority to hand over land to Russia – Ukraine’s Constitution requires a referendum to cede territory, and polls show the vast majority of Ukrainians oppose doing so.

Speaking to reporters with Zelenskyy at his side in the Oval Office, Trump offered vague assurances of American security guarantees for Ukraine and did not rule out a role for U.S. troops, if Ukraine agrees to a peace deal with Russia.

Several of the European leaders referred in their public comments to “Article V-like security guarantees,” a reference to the section of the NATO treaty that regards an attack on one member as an attack on all.

Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and Trump has said in recent days that he would oppose letting the country into the alliance. The Europeans appeared to be making the case that even if Ukraine remained outside of NATO, with no prospect of joining it for years, it should be treated as if it were inside.

Trump said that Putin was willing to accept a Western force of some kind in Ukraine, though Putin has not agreed, at least in public, to any such force. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday released a statement firmly rejecting the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine as part of any security guarantees.

The statement raised questions about what U.S. and Russian officials discussed in Alaska on Friday. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, said on CNN on Sunday that Moscow had agreed that Washington and its European allies could extend security guarantees to Ukraine that would resemble NATO’s collective defense mandate.

But the Russian ministry’s statement Monday said, “We reaffirm our repeatedly stated position of categorical rejection of any scenarios involving the presence of a military contingent from NATO countries in Ukraine.”

Trump said that he expected Putin to release more than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners after a trilateral meeting was set up with Zelenskyy. That would be one of the largest prisoner exchanges in the war; in May, the two countries exchanged 1,000 prisoners over three days.

Zelenskyy has said that security guarantees for Ukraine are necessary to ensure that Russia will not agree to a peace deal and then invade Ukraine again. When asked what kind of assistance he wanted, Zelenskyy said Monday: “Everything.”

The meeting also exposed differences over the need for an immediate ceasefire, which Ukraine has demanded before any negotiations over a permanent peace begin. Trump said he did not believe that a cease-fire was needed, reiterating a stance that more closely aligns with Russia’s position.

But Merz said that European leaders agreed that a ceasefire is essential to stop the killing before a longer-term peace agreement can be negotiated. “So let’s work on that and let’s try to put pressure on Russia,” Merz said.

Hours before the meeting, Russian attacks in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia killed at least 14 people, including a child, and injured dozens of others, Ukrainian authorities said. Zelenskyy condemned the strikes as a deliberate attempt to put pressure on Ukraine amid the talks.

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Even as the leaders confronted the future security of Ukraine, the matter of Zelenskyy’s sartorial choices once again took on outsize importance. During Zelenskyy’s last Oval Office meeting, Brian Glenn, a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing cable channel, criticized Zelenskyy’s military garb as disrespectful, adding to the tensions. This time, Glenn complimented Zelenskyy, saying his suit looked “fabulous.”

“I said the same thing,” Trump said.

Melania Trump, the first lady, weighed in on the conflict, writing a letter to Putin imploring him to protect children. The letter, dated Aug. 15 and posted on social media by Trump on Sunday, did not mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was written in impressionistic language.

“In today’s world, some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter, untouched by the darkness around them – a silent defiance against the force that can potentially claim their future,” Melania Trump wrote. “Mr. Putin, you can single-handedly restore their melodic laughter.”

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin. But Zelenskyy began his meeting with Donald Trump on Monday by expressing his gratitude for the letter and giving Trump a letter to give to Melania Trump that was written by Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska.

Russia has abducted tens of thousands of Ukrainian children since the war began. In 2023, the International Criminal Court accused Putin of war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of responsibility for the abduction and deportation of children. The State Department in March ended funding for a database that tracked the missing children.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.