Emmanuel Ukudolo I Monday, August 18, 2025
WASHINGTON, United States – Leaders of Europe are presently in Washington as part of the meeting between President Donald Trump and President Volodimir Zelenskky of Ukraine.
Present in the ongoing meeting is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister of Italy, Georgia Meloni, President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, President of the Council of European Union, Von Der Leyen and Secretary of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, Mark Rutte.
President Trump who laid the background for the meeting said there will be a resolution from the meeting they hope to hold at the oval building later in the day.
He told the gathering that he had a very robust meeting with President Vladimir Putin whom he said has agreed to security guarantee and territory swaps.
He promised to set up a meeting with President Putin after this meeting as part of his quest to save lives because lives are lost everyday.
“I believe a peace agreement is achievable. I thought it will be an easy one but it’s now very complex”, Trump noted, adding “we will come to a resolution today”.
He said over a thousand prisoners will all be released as part of the agreement.
On ceasefire after the trilateral meeting, Trump said,”We will see how this works out. If we can do the ceasefire, great.
“A week or two we will see if it can be done. We have to give it our best”, he said of the meeting.
He commended the European leaders for raising their defense budget from 2 percent to 5 percent.
In his opening remarks Zelenskky said he had a prior meeting with leaders of Europe and that it was very impressive.
“We spoke about security guarantees for Ukraine, we want to finish the war, stop Russia”, he said, stressing the need to bring all the kids back to their families in Ukraine. He said territories we will discussed at the trilateral meeting.
“We have to bring back all our people in prison and guarantees. We are happy and thank you Mr. President”, he said.
All the leaders made brief comments with emphasis on security guarantee for Ukraine and Europe.
NATO Secretary: we are happy about this meeting.
Von Der Leyen: We need to stop the killing. Every single child must come back to their family
Chancellor Friedrich Merz: We will like to see a ceasefire, from the next meeting.
Georgia Meloni: Thanks you for the change in disposition of Russia partly due to your efforts and bold stand of Ukraine. If we want peace we have to do it unitedly. We need security guarantee that it won’t happen again.
Macron: Thanks for the meeting and your commitment. All of us on this table are all in favour of peace. If we talk about security guarantee, we are talking about all of Europe. First we need to build a credible Ukraine Army, we also want to be part of the security guarantee.
PM. Starmer. We want peace because the war in Ukraine also has impact on Europe. We talk about security guarantee in line with what we have been doing, security for Ukraine and Europe and make progress on trilateral meeting. Thanks for being able to bring it this close.
Alexander Stubb, Finland. President : Securiry guarantee is part of the process. We are here small but we have a long border with Russia. We found solutions to our issue with Russia in 1944 but we are sure we will find solutions in 2025 too.
