London: US President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday to seek a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, after emerging from a high-stakes summit with no public concessions from Russia.
Zelensky spoke with Trump for 90 minutes on Saturday to discuss Russian demands and prepare for the next round of negotiations, joined by major European leaders in their push to give Ukraine a stronger say in any outcome.
The meeting on Monday sharpens the focus on how Trump will respond to continued Russian attacks on Ukraine after he emerged from the summit in Alaska on Friday without any clear progress with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a new development that he did not signal in Alaska, Trump spoke to Zelensky about a three-way meeting between the United States, Russia and Ukraine. However, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said there had been no discussion of a three-way summit during the Alaska meeting, according to Russian state media.
Ukrainian politicians mocked Trump for treating Putin with high honour in Alaska when the Russian leader is considered a war criminal by 120 countries, but Zelensky conveyed a sense of progress and made no criticism of the outcome.
“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,” he said on social media on Saturday.
“President Trump informed [me] about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion. It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation.
“We support President Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the USA, and Russia. Ukraine emphasises that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this.”