Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. European leaders join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on August 18, as they try to find a way to end Russia\u2019s offensive. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the \u201ccoalition of the willing.\u201d (Photo by Mandel NGAN \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he would be talking to Putin by telephone later Monday and hoped for a three-way meeting with the Kremlin leader and Zelensky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if everything works out well today we\u2019ll have a trilat, and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,\u201d said Trump, sitting in the Oval alongside Zelensky.<\/p>\n
Zelensky, who came backed by a phalanx of top European leaders, praised Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. European leaders join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on August 18, as they try to find a way to end Russia\u2019s offensive. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the \u201ccoalition of the willing.\u201d (Photo by Mandel NGAN \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Commission and NATO were at the White House in a show of support for Ukraine, as Trump pushed Kyiv to give up Crimea and abandon its goals of joining NATO.<\/p>\n
They were due to meet with Trump shortly.<\/p>\n
\u2018I love it\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nThe atmosphere was far calmer than when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky in front of TV cameras less than six months ago for not being \u201cgrateful\u201d for US support.<\/p>\n
READ ALSO: US Has Revoked 6,000 Student Visas \u2013 State Dept<\/strong><\/p>\nTrump even complimented Zelensky on his black jacket, after the Ukrainian was criticized by right-wing media because he failed to change his trademark war-leader\u2019s outfit for a suit during the February visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d said Trump, pointing to Zelensky\u2019s outfit as they shook hands on the Ukrainian president\u2019s arrival at the West Wing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. European leaders join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on August 18, as they try to find a way to end Russia\u2019s offensive. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the \u201ccoalition of the willing.\u201d (Photo by Mandel NGAN \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lighthearted exchange however belied the fact that Kyiv and its allies had been fearful that Trump was, once again, pivoting towards Putin\u2019s views following the Alaska summit.<\/p>\n
With Zelensky pushing for Western security guarantees to back up any peace deal with Russia, Trump said the United States would be \u201cinvolved\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s future security.<\/p>\n
Trump, 79, would not say if US troops could help with such guarantees but said that \u201cwe\u2019ll let you know that maybe later today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\nUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. European leaders join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in talks with US President Donald Trump on August 18, as they try to find a way to end Russia\u2019s offensive. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the \u201ccoalition of the willing.\u201d (Photo by Mandel NGAN \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Air raid sirens sounded over Kyiv on Monday, AFP journalists heard, just as European leaders were arriving at the White House. Russian strikes overnight killed at least seven people.<\/p>\n
\u2018Peace through strength\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nThe European leaders held a preparatory meeting with the Ukrainian president in Washington on Monday morning, while Zelensky also met Trump\u2019s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.<\/p>\n
Zelensky described the talks at the White House as \u201cvery serious\u201d and sought to flatter Trump by echoing his trademark \u201cpeace through strength\u201d language.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zelensky called on social media for a \u201creliable and lasting peace for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe\u201d and said they would discuss Western security guarantees for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Reports had said Putin would be open to Western security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of any peace deal, but had ruled out Kyiv\u2019s long-term ambition to join NATO.<\/p>\n
The US president had alarmed Kyiv and European capitals in recent days by repeating a number of Russian talking points.<\/p>\n
Trump said Sunday that Zelensky could end the war \u201calmost immediately, if he wants to\u201d but that, for Ukraine, \u00a0there was \u201cno getting back\u201d Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and \u201cNO GOING INTO NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump reiterated that he does not think a ceasefire is necessary for negotiating an end to the war, which began with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of its pro-Western neighbor in February 2022.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Donald Trump,Vladimir Putin,Volodymyr ZelenskySource<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump Welcomes Zelensky With Fresh Optimism On Peace Deal \u2022 Channels Television \u00a0 US President Donald Trump raised hopes of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia Monday as he gave President Volodymyr Zelensky a friendly welcome for high-stakes talks at the White House. The meeting is the first since an acrimonious row between the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[173],"tags":[293,1578,797],"class_list":["post-234645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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