President Donald Trump said Monday he plans to set up a meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the war between the countries.
Trump’s announcement on Truth Social came after a day of meetings at the White House with Zelenskyy and European leaders.
Trump spoke to Putin for 40 minutes in the Oval Office without the European leaders present. He said the informed the Russian leader of the stakes and discussions in his meetings.
“Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
Trump has been working to end the three-year conflict, which started after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He flew to Alaska on Friday for a face-to-face meeting with Putin and then extended an invite to Zelenskyy and the European leaders to the White House on Monday.
Trump met with Zelenskyy at the White House for about an hour before the pair then met with European leaders to work toward a breakthrough to resolve the conflict.
Zelenskyy said later that their private meeting in the Oval Office went well.
“We had a very good conversation,” he said. “Maybe the best one.”
As a condition of ending the war, Putin has insisted that Russia retain about 20% of Ukrainian territory that it now controls. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine’s constitution forbids him to cede any land.
“It’s never the end of the road,” Trump said. “People are being killed, and we want to stop that. So I would say it’s not the end of the road. I think we have a good chance of doing it.”
Trump was asked twice if he would deploy American troops to Ukraine. He did not dismiss the idea.
“We’re going to work with Ukraine, we’re going to work with everybody, and we’re going to make sure that if there is peace, the peace is going to stay long-term,” he said.
