Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to make an "acceptable compromise" along the current front line that Ukrainians could agree to.
The Financial Times reports this, citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official close to Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to him, the goal of the Ukrainian president at the meeting with US President Donald Trump will be to establish "a productive process of peaceful settlement without pressure on Ukraine to take impossible steps, such as withdrawing troops" from the unoccupied territory of Donbas.
Zelensky and Trump meet at the White House
Preliminary, the bilateral meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky will begin at 8:15 PM Kyiv time and will last an hour. And at 10:00 PM, the multilateral meeting between the US president and European leaders will begin.
On the eve of the talks in Washington, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed their participation in the talks.
On the eve of the meeting with Zelensky, Trump wrote that the Ukrainian president could "almost instantly" end the war with Russia if he wanted to, or he could continue to fight. According to the American leader, there will be no return of Crimea and no accession to NATO. Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine does not legally recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
Earlier, Politico noted that Ukraineʼs European allies are trying to avoid the scenario that developed during Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs first visit to the White House in February of this year. Then Zelensky and Trump quarreled, and after that the United States temporarily stopped arms supplies and stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Relations between the two countries remained tense for some time, but gradually normalized.
Results of the Putin-Trump meeting
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held talks in a "three-on-three" format on August 15. The meeting lasted about three hours, after which the US president and the Kremlin leader made brief statements, but did not answer journalistsʼ questions. The leaders did not make any significant statements about the ceasefire in Ukraine and related issues, but both spoke positively about the talks. There were also no agreements on a trilateral summit with Zelenskyʼs participation.
Trump, after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European leaders and a meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, said that "all together" decided that it was necessary to immediately move to a peace agreement, and not talk about a temporary ceasefire. Zelensky has previously repeatedly stressed the need for a ceasefire, after which all the conditions for a lasting peace should be discussed.
Reuters, citing sources, published a list of Putinʼs demands for an end to the war. These include the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, a ban on joining NATO, the lifting of sanctions against Russia, and "formal recognition" of Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
In return, Russia allegedly agrees to return the occupied parts of Sumy and Kharkiv regions and agree to certain security guarantees for Ukraine.
- Axios writes that in a conversation with European leaders following the summit in Alaska, Trump said that he wants to organize a trilateral meeting with the participation of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as early as Friday, August 22.
- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Trump supported the Italian idea of security guarantees for Ukraine based on NATOʼs Article 5.
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