Meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy at White House. LIVE BROADCAST
On the evening of 18 August, a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begun at the White House.
This is reported by Censor.NET.
At the beginning of the meeting, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy handed over a letter to US First Lady Melania Trump from First Lady Olena Zelenska.
Zelenskyy said that the First Lady of Ukraine thanked the US First Lady for her letter to Russian leader Vladimir Putin regarding the future of children.
The president also said that Ukraine is ready for trilateral meetings. Trump believes that if today's meeting goes well, there will be an opportunity to hold similar talks with Ukraine, Russia and the US.
"I think when we do that, there will be a reasonable opportunity to end the war," Trump said.
The US president also refused to answer the question whether security guarantees for Ukraine could include the deployment of US troops. He said he might answer this question later.
Zelenskyy also assured that Ukraine is ready to hold elections, but it is necessary to ensure the safety of citizens and resolve legal issues in parliament, as current legislation prohibits elections during martial law. He stressed that the main condition is the ability to organise a democratic and legal process even in the difficult circumstances of war.
Donald Trump responded with a joke, asking whether this meant that in the event of war, elections would be cancelled altogether, and added that in the US, they would have to be postponed for several years.
Trump also said that the US does not support Ukraine's accession to NATO. But it is ready to provide clear security guarantees.
At the same time, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine now has the opportunity to buy weapons from the US through the PURL programme, and this will be part of the security guarantees.
There were also references to the last meeting of the presidents at the White House. American journalist Brian Glenn, who in February criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit, apologised.
At the end of the briefing, Donald Trump said that he would call Putin after talks with Zelenskyy and European leaders. It is also known that Zelenskyy and Trump held a "one-on-one" meeting, and later they were joined by European leaders.
Updated
After that, a private meeting between the presidents began.
Zelenskyy and Trump were later joined by European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The meeting also had a public and a private part.
According to some media outlets, the meeting with European leaders was interrupted because Trump decided to call Russian President Vladimir Putin during the meeting.
After the meeting, there were no official comments from the participants, but Trump said in a post on TruthSocial that he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine with European leaders and added that he had begun organising a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.
At around 01:40 p.m. Kyiv time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left the White House.
As a reminder, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and French President Emmanuel Macron will attend a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, 18 August.
According to media reports, the meeting will also be attended by Vice President Vance, Rubio, Witkoff, and other advisers.
