Donald Trump and Volodmyr Zelenskyy have held a historic meeting in the White House Oval Office with European leaders to discuss the path to peace with Russia. Source: The Australian.
Mr Trump declared this objective was now “within reach” but acknowledged that Kyiv would need to be provided with “very good protection (and) very good security” as part of any agreement to end the war that started with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022.
Mr Trump declared it to be a “very successful day” and acknowledged that any peace in Eastern Europe would have to be acceptable to Mr Zelenskyy as well as the people of Ukraine.
He also insisted that Russia’s Vladimir Putin wanted to secure a peace agreement.
The meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy was in stark contrast to their previous encounter on February 28, which ended with the Ukrainian leader being asked to leave the White House after the two leaders became engaged in a verbal row before the world’s media.
The atmospherics overnight were vastly different, with the US President adopting a much warmer demeanour and signalling his openness to providing NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine while opposing its entry into the alliance itself.
While Ukraine is pushing for security guarantees, Moscow is pushing for territorial demands that would see it potentially take over the eastern Donbas region – including land that Ukrainian forces still control.
The European leaders who arrived at the White House shortly before Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Zelenskyy included 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; Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Mr Zelenskyy said that he had a “very good” conversation with Mr Trump.
“And we spoke about very sensitive points. The first one is security guarantees. And we are very happy with the president that all the leaders are here. And security in Ukraine depends on the United States and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts,” he said.
“This is very important that the United States gives such a strong signal and is ready for security guarantees.”
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Ukraine peace deal likely to include territory swap says Trump (By Joe Kelly, The Australian)
