White House Talks: Plans for US-Russia-Ukraine Meeting, Security Guarantees

The talks involved Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the leaders of the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Finland, as well as the chiefs of the European Commission and NATO. The White House hosted such a large number of European leaders for the first time in history. The multilateral event was preceded by a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Zelensky, which lasted about an hour.

In addition, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to brief him on the talks. Their conversation lasted around 40 minutes; the two spoke in favor of continuing direct talks between Moscow and Kiev and discussed the possibility of increasing their level, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov said.

TASS has gathered the key statements made by participants in the White House meeting.

Trump’s position

Trump said after the White House talks that he had begun the arrangements for a meeting between Putin and Zelensky "at a location to be determined." Their meeting is supposed to be followed by trilateral talks involving the US, Russia and Ukraine, Trump added.

"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," he wrote on the Truth Social platform. "Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine," he added.

Before the talks, Trump expressed confidence that it would be possible to hold a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin and Zelensky. At the meeting with European leaders and Zelensky, he said that it was just a matter of time.

The US president is confident that Russia seeks to resolve the conflict. He stressed after talks with Zelensky that the threat of Russia's further aggression against Ukraine was overrated. Trump also noted that work on a peace agreement did not require a ceasefire.

The US leader pointed out that Russia and Ukraine should discuss a potential exchange of territories to settle the crisis.

Trump expects that it would be clear "in a week or two weeks" if it’s possible to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

Zelensky’s statements

Zelensky said after talks with Trump that he was ready for a bilateral meeting with the Russian president. "I confirmed, and all leaders supported me, that we are ready for a bilateral meeting with Putin," he told a briefing. He said that he expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Trump afterwards, and added that no date had been set yet for a meeting with Putin.

Zelensky also stated that he would like to discuss "the issue of territories" at a potential bilateral meeting with Putin, adding that he did not insist on a ceasefire as a condition for further negotiations.

Zelensky claimed that "all sensitive issues, those related to territories and other things," would be discussed at a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the US and Russia.

Besides, Zelensky added that security guarantees for Ukraine were expected to be set out and put on paper in 7-10 days. According to him, there are three aspects to the guarantees, which concern weapons for the Ukrainian army, allied commitments and the development of Ukraine’s defense industry.

He added that it was too early to talk about the specifics of the security guarantees and whether they would include the deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine.

After the White House talks, Kiev suggested purchasing $90 bln worth of weapons from the US, including aircraft and air defense systems. The package of US weapons will refer "to the second provision of the guarantees," Zelensky explained.

At his bilateral meeting with Trump, Zelensky (whose presidential term expired on May 20, 2024) said that he was open to holding elections in Ukraine, but only after hostilities were over.

European leaders and NATO chief

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the idea of a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, the US and Ukraine. However, in his view, there is also a need to hold a four-party meeting involving Europe.

Macron said that the White House event had discussed the possibility of tightening sanctions on Russia. He also noted that European leaders and Trump expected to arrange direct communication between Putin and Zelensky in the coming days or weeks. According to Macron, a place for the meeting will be determined on August 19.

However, in Macron’s words, the meeting's participants did not touch upon issues related to territories because the focus was on security guarantees.

Macron said the fact that the US had expressed "clear commitment" to participating in providing security guarantees to Ukraine marked "important progress." Speaking of the guarantees, the French leader expressed the view that Ukraine would need to be able to maintain a hundreds of thousands strong army, while Kiev’s allies would train it, provide equipment for it and finance it over a prolonged period of time.

Unlike Trump, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz highlighted the need to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine before the next phase of peace talks could begin. In addition, Merz believes it is necessary to put pressure on Russia.

He said that the Coalition of the Willing would hold a video conference on August 19, and after that, a European Council meeting would take place.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Fox News after the White House talks that discussions on Ukraine would continue online. Rutte noted that even though there was an irreversible path for Ukraine into NATO, it wasn’t currently on the agenda because the US and some other countries opposed Ukraine's membership.

He also said that territorial concessions had not been discussed at the meeting. The NATO chief stressed that US weapons supplies to Ukraine would continue and would be paid for by "NATO partners in Europe."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed confidence at the meeting that European nations and the US were capable of ensuring real progress on the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine. Starmer sees a potential meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky as the next reasonable step.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for unity in the search for a way out of the Ukraine crisis. In her opinion, Trump has succeeded in launching a new phase of these efforts.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the meeting that the European Union and the United States would develop "strong security guarantees" for Ukraine.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb expressed the opinion that it would take about a week to work out the details of the security guarantees.

Media response

According to the Washington Post, Zelensky "thanked Trump about 11 times in the four and a half minutes he addressed him publicly at multiple meetings."

"Zelensky made clear that he had adapted in the six months since his last visit to the White House," which ended "in disaster," the paper notes.

The Washington Post points out that Zelensky was not alone in praising the US president as "the European and NATO leaders repeatedly thanked and complimented Trump during their White House meeting."