President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at 1:00 PM ET, with the meeting starting at 1:15 PM ET.
The president’s schedule said Trump will greet the European leaders at 2:15 PM ET.
Trump and Zelenskyy will likely discuss what happened between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday to end the war once they finish the press conference.
This press conference went way better than the one in February.
The confirmed European leaders: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Von der Leyen said the EU supports a meeting between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia.
Finnish President Alex Stubb admitted more progress has happened to end this war these past two weeks that in the last three years.
I’m glad Trump keeps reminding people that a lot of the responsibility falls on Zelenskyy and Ukraine. We cannot hold their hands:
Trump: “President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine and this is one of the key points that we need to consider and we’re going to be considering that at the table. Also, like, who will do what, essentially? I’m optimistic that collectively we can reach an agreement that would deter any future aggression against Ukraine and I actually think there won’t be. I think that’s even over overrated, largely overrated, but we’re going to find out. And I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure. We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory taken into consideration, the current line of contact. That means the war zone, the war lines that are pretty obvious. Very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions. President Putin also, you have president of Ukraine who is — you just met a little while ago, and we’re going to try and get a — a three party meeting maybe as soon as we can. And I have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out. Ultimately, this is a decision that can only be made by President Zelenskyy and by the people of Ukraine working also together in an agreement with President Putin and I just think that’s a very good things are going to come of it. So, I hope we have a good meeting and if we can have a good meeting, I’ll set up a meeting with president Putin. And if you’d like, I’ll go to that meeting. And not that I want to do that, but I will do that because we want to save a lot of people from dying. A lot of people are dying, and we’ve got to save them. We’ve got to save it. 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 people. Sometimes a week. All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace. And maybe something like that could happen. As of this moment, it’s not happening. But, President Zelenskyy and president Putin can talk a little bit more about that.”
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I wonder if this meeting will end up as contentious as Zelenskyy’s first visit in February.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Ukraine will receive “Article 5-like protections.”
NATO’s Article 5 guarantees members would respond if one member is attacked. I believe NATO invoked the article after 9/11.
Well, Ukraine is not a member of Ukraine, which is why Witkoff’s language is important: Article 5-LIKE protections.
The security guarantees will come from some European allies and the U.S. instead of NATO.
That explains why many European leaders decided to join Zelenskyy at the White House today.
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