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What we learned from the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, briefly explained
Trump met with Zelenskyy and European leaders to discuss an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: A short-notice meeting at the White House today brought President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and seven other European leaders together to discuss the Russian war in Ukraine — but revealed little about whether a peace deal will be possible.
What happened? Two major topics of discussion were the possibility of a ceasefire and security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump said the US would provide Ukraine with “very good protection” from Russia as part of a potential peace deal; though the specifics of such an arrangement are still unclear, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte described it as a “breakthrough.”
The other big result of the meeting is the promise of another meeting — this time, a trilateral discussion between Trump, Zelenskyy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Trump has pushed to arrange, and Zelenskyy today signaled he would be open to.
The meeting also went more smoothly than Trump’s February conversation with Zelenskyy, which devolved into Trump and Vice President JD Vance both haranguing the Ukrainian leader.
Who attended? The meeting featured a remarkable assemblage of European leaders who gathered to show support for Zelenskyy, underscoring the war’s broader significance to the continent. In addition to Trump and Zelenskyy, the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK were in the room, as were Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.
What’s the context? Today’s meeting follows Trump’s Friday summit with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, which ended abruptly with little announced progress. Over the weekend, however, Trump indicated his support for a Putin plan that would require Ukraine to cede territory as a condition for ending the war, as well as backed off his previous insistence on an immediate ceasefire.
What’s next? A trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy now seems more likely. Such a meeting could build on discussions over the past two weeks and bring Putin and Zelenskyy face-to-face — but it’s unclear whether Putin is even interested in ending a war when he believes his troops are still winning on the battlefield.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
If you haven’t read the latest edition of Vox Book Club, I highly recommend it — my colleague Kelsi Trinidad rounded up a list of excellent book recommendations from the Vox staff, and you can read them all here. And whether it’s a book from the list or something you were already reading, I hope you’re able to spend some time logged off with a good book this evening — we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
