Key takeaways from Ukraine talks in Washington

President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to the White House on Monday to meet with US President Donald Trump for new talks aiming to end the war in Ukraine.

A few European leaders rejected plans for Trump to fly to Washington to attend the meeting days after meeting with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a summit that could not result in a ceasefire.

Despite Trump’s optimistic words and warm evaluations than European partners, there was no concrete commitment to security guarantees or concrete steps for a peace agreement until Monday evening.

Here are the basic inferences from the interviews.

One of Trump’s very good goals is to hold a three -way meeting with Zelensky and Putin.

Before his talks with European leaders on Monday, he said it was a matter of “when not,” such a meeting will take place now.

After the summit, Trump said he was looking for Putin to “organize” bilateral talks between the Russian leader and Zelensky.

As a duo between Putin and Zelensky, Trump said he would be a trio that the US President would join both.

A Putin advisor later said Trump and Putin spoke for 40 minutes on the phone on Monday.

Before the European leaders lived in the eastern room in the White House, Trump and the US leader and French President Emmanuel Macron received a warm microphone statements.

“I think he wants to make an agreement.

For the first time, Russia’s full -scale invasion has been seen for the first time on the negotiation table since it started in February 2022.

For months, he has been forcing Zelensky Putin to meet, but there is no indication that the Ukrainian leader thinks he can end such a bilateral conflict.

Instead, this was probably a way of claiming that Russia was not serious in maintaining peace because Putin had nothing to do with accepting such a meeting.

Russian President said that he had previously seen Zelensky as “illegitimate” because in the war law, no elections in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

The Kremlin has repeatedly turned the Putin-Zelensky bilateral idea.

Two weeks ago, Moscow argued that the presidents of Russian and Ukraine had no reason to meet up to the “after the appropriate distance” between the positions of the two countries.

In a non -common statement shared by Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov on Monday night, Moscow said that it is useful to “explore” the possibility of increasing the level of representatives from Russia and Ukrainian delegations attending negotiations.

It should be noted that Kremlin’s tongue is much more uncertain than Trump and that Putin himself contains no suggestions that he can prepare for a bilateral meeting with Zelensky – Trump seems intend to bring them together.

Even if such a meeting emerged, the Russian and Ukraine also have the question of what they can achieve when their demands to end the war are too far.

In his words next to European leaders on Monday, Trump seemed to have eliminated any cease -fire need to end the negotiations to end the war.

In the past, Ukraine has had a fundamental demand, which has made it an end to the fight as a prerequisite for more meetings with Russia and ultimately a prerequisite for a longer -term settlement.

A ceasefire may also be easier to understand more than a peace agreement that will probably take months of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

On Monday, Trump said that the six war, which he claimed to have helped to stop since January, including the conflicts between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand -Kambol and India and India, ended without official ceasefire.

Orum I don’t know it’s necessary, dedi he said.

European leaders returned to this proposal, the most powerful refutation of the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz came.

“I can’t imagine that the next meeting will take place without a ceasefire.” He said. “So let’s work on it and try to put pressure on Russia.”

As things stop, it remains unclear whether the government in Kiev is determined to be a necessary step towards meaningful talks with Moscow.

When he was asked to speak, Zelensky did not repeat his calls for the implementation of a previous ceasefire.

One of the questions given to Zelensky was about what he would need from the United States to guarantee his country’s security. Was unity, intelligence, equipment?

At a time, which conveyed the sense of urgency he was trying to suppress in most of the press conference, Zelensky leaned over his chair and he certainly said: “Everything”.

“We need a strong Ukrainian army,” he added. “Weapons, people, education tasks and intelligence.”

Trump did not offer us military boots.

However, when the journalists were asked whether the US security guarantees for Ukraine could contain any US army in the country, Trump did not exclude it.

He said Europe was the “first defense line”, but “we’ll be involved.”

“We will provide them with good protection,” the President said at some point.

This is the most decisive thing that Trump has ever been able to have ever been the most important of all kinds of agreements with Russia.

On Monday, the US President said that during the last week’s Alaska Summit, Putin had admitted that he would have security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any peace agreement.

However, the lack of details about exactly what these guarantees can be related to both KYIV and Europe, and behind the closed doors, leaders will undoubtedly try to affect Trump that the US deterrence should be more than symbolic.

Continuous arms flow to Ukraine is welcomed; The promise of American boots on the ground will be even more results.

Such a commitment level can be difficult to obtain from Trump at this stage.

Distributing US troops to the territory of Ukraine will mean the risk of direct confrontation with Russia.

In addition, it will create a great direct intervention by a President who is proud of his ability to separate the US from foreign conflicts.

Considering the latest visit to the Oval Office in February, the President of the Ukrainian went to important lengths for innate and attraction, including six “thanks” in the first few minutes of the meeting.

For the last time in the White House, Zelensky was scolded by Vice President JD Vance for a lack of gratitude perceived for supporting Ukraine during the war.

Another point of discussion at the meeting held in February – Zelensky’s clothes appeared.

This time, Zelensky was wearing a dark suit rather than traditional military outfit, and when he was asked by the same reporter who criticized him for he hadn’t wore him in an oval office, he seemed well prepared with a joke.

After the reporter told him that he looked “magnificent”, Zelensky said that the journalist was wearing the same outfit for the last time, and laughter from journalists, Trump and other officials in the room.

“As you can see, I changed,” he added.

Zelensky also tried to establish a family connection during the meeting and gave the landlord a letter to a First Lady Melania Trump from Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska.

“This is not for you – [it’s] To your wife, Tr Trump said.

Similarly, other European leaders decided to boast of Trump before their multilateral meetings, and praised them to bring them around the table.

“I really want to thank you for your leadership,” NATO chef Mark Rutte said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, although it is not a sign that Russia wants to move towards peace before, thanks to Trump, “something has changed,” he said.

Despite the warm tones, Europeans also made a common effort to convey that they felt that they were exposed to future Russian aggression.

French President Emmanuel Macron said to other leaders: “When we talk about security guarantees, we’re talking about the security of the European continent.”