Trump announces plans for Zelensky-Putin peace summit

US President Donald Trump announced Monday that he has begun preparations for a bilateral peace summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be followed by a trilateral meeting that he himself will join.

Speaking after hosting Zelensky and several European leaders at the White House, Trump said: “At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky.”

He added: “After that meeting, we will hold a trilateral meeting between myself and the two presidents.”

A source familiar with the talks said Putin told Trump he was ready to meet with Zelensky.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also confirmed that during the phone call with Trump, Putin agreed to meet Zelensky “within two weeks.”

Following his talks with European leaders, Trump stressed that Europe, in coordination with the United States, could provide Ukraine with security guarantees as part of a peace agreement with Russia. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he wrote: “We discussed during the meeting security guarantees for Ukraine, to be offered by various European countries in coordination with the United States.”