OAN Staff Blake Wolf and Brooke Mallory
4:30 PM – Monday, August 18, 2025
President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders on Monday in the East Room of the White House, following his Friday meeting with the Russian president. As the nations work toward a peace agreement, the back-to-back talks highlight a renewed diplomatic effort to halt the killing.
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Moscow, and European partners are still seeking a path toward ending the conflict and ensuring regional stability.
President Trump began Monday’s meeting by hosting the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office. The tone of the meeting was much more cordial than Zelensky’s prior visit to the White House, which ended in a back-and-forth shouting match.
Zelensky took the opportunity to present President Trump with a letter from his wife, addressed to First Lady Melania Trump. The gesture came after Melania had written to Russian President Putin, urging him to keep the welfare of children in mind as the war continues to rage on.
“Thank you for invitation, and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts, to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you for using this opportunity, many thanks to your wife,” Zelensky stated.
Throughout the Oval Office visit, President Trump was asked about whether security guarantees would include U.S. troops in Ukraine, to which he responded: “We’ll let you know that maybe later today. We’re meeting with 7 great leaders of great countries also. And we’ll be talking about that, they’ll all be involved. But there will be a lot of help when it comes to security, there is gonna be a lot of help.”
Prior to the larger meeting, Zelensky reiterated his ideal position, explaining that Ukraine needs “everything” in relation to security guarantees, including weapons, training, international forces, and intelligence.
President Trump and Zelensky then held the larger multilateral meeting with several European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Kier Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Following his conversation with Putin on Friday, President Trump appeared to soften his stance on requiring Russia to agree to a ceasefire — a position that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had strongly advocated during Monday’s meeting.
“I don’t think you need a ceasefire. You know, if you look at the 6 deals that I settled this year they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires. I know that it might be good to have but I can also understand strategically why one country or the other wouldn’t want it. You have a ceasefire and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and you know, maybe [Russia] doesn’t want that,” Trump explained during Monday’s Oval Office meeting with Zelensky.
Despite Trump’s stance, Merz stated that Europe “would like to see a ceasefire.”
“I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let’s work on that and let’s try to put pressure on Russia because the credibility of these efforts we are undertaking today are depending on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations from the next step on,” Merz stated.
In response, President Trump remarked that he would leave it to Zelensky to resolve the issue directly with Putin in a future meeting, emphasizing that he has never made a ceasefire a prerequisite in his past negotiations between warring nations.
President Trump reiterated that a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky is already in motion, stressing that it is a matter of “when, not if.” He emphasized that only the date remains to be set, and the U.S. president indicated he would move swiftly to arrange the summit in order to sustain momentum in the negotiations.
During Monday’s gathering, French President Macron chimed in at one point to suggest that at least one other European leader be included in future meetings between Putin, Zelensky, and Trump.
“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,” Macron stated.
Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb praised Trump’s peace efforts, stating: “I think in the past two weeks, we’ve probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years.”
“I think we could take a really important step forward today, a historic step actually could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe,” added British Prime Minister Kier Starmer.
After speaking with Putin, President Trump warned that Ukraine may have to give up land that was stolen by Russian forces throughout the conflict, that is, if they wish to secure a peace deal. However, this proposal has largely been rejected by Ukrainian and European leaders.
Ukrainian parliament member Kira Rudik was one to reject the proposal, arguing that it effectively amounts to “giving up on the lives that we have lost for it.”
“First, because it is against Ukrainian constitution, and second, because for us it is very emotional. For every inch of Ukrainian territory that we are holding onto right now, we have paid an ultimate price. And for us to give it up would mean that Ukraine is giving up on the lives that we have lost for it and the price that we have paid,” Rudik told CNN.
“Ukrainian people would not accept it at all,” she added.
Despite Rudik’s comment, the Ukrainian people overwhelmingly support a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, according to a recent Gallup poll. The poll revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support immediate negotiation efforts to end the brutal conflict.
On the other hand, Moscow remains steadfast in its commitment to rejecting Ukrainian security guarantees, including the deployment of NATO troops into Ukraine, Ukrainian entry into NATO, and annexing parts of the conquered Ukrainian land.
“We reaffirm our repeatedly stated position of categorical rejection of any scenarios involving the presence of a military contingent from NATO countries in Ukraine,” stated Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
After the meeting, President Trump issued a Truth Social post, expressing that he “had a very good meeting with distinguished guests.”
“During the meeting, we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America. Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump wrote.
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump added.
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