Donald Trump said the US would help arrange European security guarantees for Ukraine if peace could be agreed with Russia, as he pledged to set up a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Writing on social media on Monday evening after a day of intense diplomacy in Washington, Trump said America would provide “co-ordination” for Europe’s security guarantees — but stopped short of a full-throated commitment of American military support for Kyiv.
The Kremlin also did not confirm that Russia would arrange for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet, leaving the centrepiece of Trump’s proposal in doubt.
The US president had been under pressure from Zelenskyy and European allies to offer robust security guarantees to Ukraine in any peace deal, after he failed to secure a ceasefire from Putin at a summit last week in Alaska.
Speaking alongside the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office, Trump said the US would be “involved” in helping Ukraine defend itself but the burden would mainly be on Europe.
Later, on Truth Social, he wrote: “During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a co-ordination with the United States of America.”
Zelenskyy said in a statement on Monday evening that security guarantees were a “key issue, a starting point for ending the war”.
Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, who attended the talks in Washington with Trump, Zelenskyy and several European leaders, told Fox News that the group would work on the details of security guarantees for Ukraine “over the coming days” and reconvene virtually.
He added that putting troops on the ground would be part of Nato member talks.
Trump’s push for a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents suggests he still sees a path to mediate a resolution to the conflict, which began when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia did not confirm that Putin would meet Zelenskyy, or was arranging a bilateral summit, even after the US and Russian presidents spoke on the phone in the midst of the negotiations on Monday.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said only that the Kremlin agreed to “support direct talks” and “discussed the idea of raising the level of Russia’s and Ukraine’s representatives”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was also in Washington, said the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could happen within two weeks, to be followed by a trilateral summit involving Trump.
“We do not know whether the Russian president has the courage to come to such a summit or not. That is why we must work to persuade him,” he said.
The US president’s comments did not indicate that Monday’s talks had reached agreement on the thorniest details of any possible settlement, including Putin’s proposal that Ukraine cede more land to Russia in exchange for freezing the rest of the current frontline.
But a European official who was part of the delegation to Washington said territories had not been part of the discussions. The official said Europeans in the room were pleased that Trump said: “That is not my business, that is a matter for Ukraine.”
While Trump made no new threat to hit Russia’s economy with sanctions if Putin continued to balk at ending the war, the European official said they believed that they had got the US president back to where he was before his summit in Alaska.
The more than six hour meetings in Washington marked an urgent new diplomatic push by Zelenskyy and European allies to win more support from Trump amid alarm at the outcome of Friday’s Alaska summit.
The gathering of European leaders, which also included UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron of France, at the White House was the largest since last year’s Nato summit, when Joe Biden was president.
Several European leaders interrupted summer holidays to dash to Washington to present a united front with Zelenskyy, who was berated by Trump and his officials during an angry Oval Office confrontation in February.
The two leaders’ meeting in the Oval Office on Monday was warm and good-humoured.
The president has repeatedly stressed his desire to be taken seriously as a global peacemaker and several European leaders lauded him with compliments, in an apparent effort to improve the mood.
Rutte said Trump’s willingness to discuss security guarantees for Kyiv was a “breakthrough”.
Zelenskyy’s delegation also arrived at the White House on Monday morning with a proposal — seen by the Financial Times — to buy $100bn worth of US weapons, in a bid to win the US president’s support.
Trump had hoped to announce a trilateral summit with Zelenskyy and Putin, but ended up with a proposal to arrange the meeting between the other two leaders, at a location to be determined.
“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,” he said.
US vice-president JD Vance, who has become more closely involved in talks with Ukraine, secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff would take charge of getting Zelenskyy and Putin together, Trump said.