Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss efforts to end Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine, now entering its fourth year.
The meeting was announced just hours after Trump concluded talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which ended without a concrete agreement.
In a post on his Truth Social platform after holding phone conversations with European Union and NATO leaders, Trump said the talks with Putin on Friday “went very well”.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump wrote.
Speaking to top officials in Moscow a day after the talks in Alaska, Putin said the talks had been “timely” and “very useful”, according to the Kremlin.
“We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time,” he said, adding: “We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail reiterate our position.”
“The conversation was very frank, substantive, and, in my opinion, brings us closer to the necessary decisions,” Putin said.
“Trump’s remarks on the need for a larger peace agreement fall in line with what Putin has been saying for the last few months,” he said.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian leader and his European allies, who have been seeking a ceasefire, welcomed the Trump-Putin talks but emphasised the need for a security guarantee for Kyiv.
