Trump says to meet Putin, Zelensky if ‘everything works out’ – World

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Monday that if his meeting with the Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky went well, he hoped to hold a trilateral meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin with the aim of finishing the war in Ukraine-Russia.

Trump is pressing Ukraine to make great concessions after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, saying that Kyiv must give up Crimea and abandon his NATO ambitions. Those are two of Moscow’s main demands.

But Zelensky, who curled up with Europeans before everyone went to the White House to meet Trump, urged Trump to bring “peace through force” against Russia and emphasized the need for security guarantees of the United States.

“We are going to have a meeting. I think that if everything goes well today, we will have a trilat (trilateral summit) and I think there will be a reasonable possibility of finishing the war when we do that,” Trump said, sitting next to Zelensky in the White House.

“I just talked to President Putin indirectly and we will have a phone call just after these meetings today.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttz6e_ucg6i

Zelensky thanked Trump for organizing conversations, which will be expanded to include European leaders later in the day. “Thanks for [the] Invitation and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop the murders and stop this war, ”he said.

Filming questions from journalists, Trump said Washington will be involved in providing security guarantees as part of a peace agreement to end the Russian war.

European countries are “the first line of defense because they are there, they are Europe, we will also help them. We will be involved,” he said.

However, the president of the United States repeated his opinion that a high fire was not necessary to end the Russian-Ukraine War, echoing the previous comments that brought their more position in line with Putin.

“I don’t think I need fire,” Trump said. “I know it could be good to have, but I can also strategically understand why one country or another would not want it. You have a stop the fire and rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and you know that they may not want that.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is received by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, upon his arrival at the White House in Washington, DC, USA UU., August 18. – AFP

Trump welcomed Zelensky to the White House, saying: “We love them”, when he was asked what his message was for the people of Ukraine after shaking Zelensky’s hand.

He also congratulated Zelensky with his intelligent black jacket, after the Ukrainian was criticized by the right -wing media for not using a suit during a visit in February that ended in a game of shouts.

Previously, European leaders began arriving at the White House before high -risk conversations, with the head of the NATO Mark Rutte, the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, among the first to arrive.

The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is received by the head of Protocol of the United States Monica Crowley (L) upon his arrival at the White House South Portico in Washington, DC, USA. UU., August 18. – AFP

Trump, 79, said it was a “great day in the White House” and seemed to be in a combative humor, producing a series of publications on social networks.

“I know exactly what I am doing,” said the Republican in his social network of truth. “And I don’t need the advice of people who have been working in all these conflicts for years, and they could never do anything to stop them.”

Trump will then meet separately with the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as Routte and Von der Leyen.

‘Peace through force’

European leaders held a preparatory meeting with Ukrainian president in Washington on Monday morning, while Zelensky also met Trump’s envoy of Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

Zelensky described the conversations in the White House as “very serious”, and tried to find Trump before the meeting, echoing his characteristic language of “peace through force.”

“President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader added that they would have “time to talk about the architecture of security guarantees. This is really the most important.”

This booklet photography taken and published by the Ukraine Presidential Press Service on August 18 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) with special envoy from the United States for Ukraine Keith Kellogg in Washington, DC, Ee. UU. – AFP

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, told reporters on the plane to Washington: “We have to make sure there is peace, that it is a lasting peace, and that it is fair and that it is fair.”

The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said before going to the White House that a “small dialogue window” is opening and that supported the idea of security guarantee.

The reports had said that Putin would be open to Western security guarantees for Ukraine in case of any peace agreement, but had ruled out kyiv’s long -term ambition to join NATO.

Russia maintained its attacks against Ukraine before the new conversations, killing at least seven people, including two children, in dozens of drone and ballistic missile strikes during the night, Ukrainian officials said. Zelensky described the strikes an attempt to “humiliate diplomatic efforts.”

Last week, a Trump-Poutin summit in Alaska could not produce a high fire in the war of almost three and a half years that began with the large-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022.

Subsequently, Trump dropped his previous insistence into a high fire in favor of looking for a complete peace agreement, which means that negotiations could continue while the war continues. He also alarmed Kyiv and European capitals repeating several Russian conversation points.

Trump said Sunday that Zelensky could end the war “almost immediately, if he wants”, but that, for Ukraine, “there was no return” to Crimea, which Russia attached in 2014, and “not to enter NATO.”

‘Some concessions’

The reports of the US media. They have said that Putin would consider freezing much of the first current line in Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to completely renounce the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Trump Steve Witkoff’s envoy said Moscow had made “some concessions” in the territory. But such movement is widely seen as unacceptable for Ukraine, which still has much of the area rich in resources.

Yevgeniy Sosnovsky, a photographer from the Ukrainian city captured from Mariupol, said “cannot understand” how Ukraine would yield under his control.

“Ukraine cannot give up any territory, not even those occupied by Russia,” he told AFP.

kyiv and Europe leaders have warned against political and territorial concessions to Russia, whose assault on Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.



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