Trump-Zelenskyy Live update meeting while leaders have Ukraine conversations at the White House

Zelenskyy offered brief comments thanking Trump for his efforts to end the war, as well as the efforts of the first lady Melania Trump.

“Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop the murders and stop this war,” said Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy also thanked the first lady for a letter that, according to the reports, wrote to Putin, urging him to allow the children of Ukraine to grow and grow in peace.

“She sent a letter to Putin about our children,” Zelenskyy said.

The president began his meeting at the Oval office with Zelenskyy with brief comments.

“It is an honor to have the president of Ukraine with us,” Trump said. “We have had many good discussions, many good conversations. And I think progress is being made, a very substantial progress, in many ways.”

The president said that “there is the possibility” that something can leave the meeting with Putin, adding that “today’s meeting is very important.”

The Zelenskyy caravan came outside the west of the White House just before 1:15 pm Mr. Trump greeted him when he left a black SUV, narrowing him and escorting him.

When a reporter asked him what his message is for the people of Ukraine, Trump replied: “We love them. We love them.”

Zelenskyy celebrates a bilateral meeting with Trump and other US officials at the Oval office, before extended meetings with European leaders later in the afternoon.

Zelenskyy said in an X post that he met with several of the European leaders on Monday morning to get on the same page before heading to the White House.

“Together with the leaders of Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy, the European Commission and the NATO general secretary, we coordinate our positions before the meeting with President Trump. Ukraine is ready for a real truce and to establish a new security architecture. We need peace,” he wrote, along with a video of him greeting the leaders out of the Ukrainia embassy in Washington.

Shortly after noon, European leaders began arriving at the South grass.

The order of arrival was:

• NATO general secretary Mark Rutte
• Ursula von der LeyenPresident of the European Commission
• United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni
• Finnish president Alexander Stubb
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• French president Emmanuel Macron

His caravans passed through an honor guard of the members of the US services holding flags along the entrance road that leads to the southern porch of the White House.

The president did not greeted the leaders outside. Instead, Monica Crowley, the head of State Department protocol, was present to welcome them. A red carpet described the way for the leaders of their vehicles to the White House.

In a publication about Truth Social before the leaders arrived, the president pointed to the critics who questioned his approach to end the war in Ukraine, saying that the Wall Street Journal and others “really have no idea.”

“I’m just here to stop it, not to process it more,” he wrote. “It would never have happened if I were president. I know exactly what I am doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all these conflicts for years, and I could never do anything to stop them.”

He continued: “They are stupid ‘people, without common sense, intelligence or understanding, and only make the current disaster of R/U more difficult to solve. Despite all my light and very jealous critics, I will do it. I will.

Russian attacks against Ukraine continued before the meeting in Washington. A wave of night air attacks hit cities from all over the country, including kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa and Sumy, according to local media.

The Ukrainian authorities said that an attack with unmanned aircraft in a residential area in the city of Kharkiv killed a small child, a 16 -year -old boy and five other people.

“Despite all the efforts of diplomacy and peace, Russia continues to kill civilians,” said Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, in a position on social networks. “Russia is a murderous war machine that Ukraine is stopping. And it must stop through unity and transatlantic pressure. Moscow must stop the murder to advance diplomacy.”

“This was a demonstrative and cynical roller strike. They are aware that a meeting is being held today in Washington that will address the end of the war,” Zelenskyy wrote on social networks, and added that more people dozens, including children, had been injured in the attack against Kharkiv.

The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, praised Mr. Trump before the meeting with Zelenskyy in an X position, saying that the president “should be praised for his stubborn determination to bring peace to Ukraine and for his courage to interact with all parts in a way that his predecessor refused to do.”

Thune reiterated that the Senate is ready to provide the White House “any economic leverage necessary to keep Russia at the table to negotiate a fair and lasting peace in Ukraine” in what appeared to be a wink to the bipartisan effort in Congress to impose New economic sanctions aimed at increasing the pressure on the Kremlin.

For months, the Senate has been entrepreneur For the draft sanctions, which was introduced by Republican senator Lindsey Graham in April and has 84 corponores, but Thune has deferred to the White House at the time.

American allies expect Monday’s meeting to be better than Zelenskyy’s memorable Last visit To the White House in February. That meeting became chaos, pointing with the finger and insults, which caused Zelenskyy to reduce.

During the course of an Oval office meeting, Trump threatened Zelenskyy to reach an agreement with Russia or “We are out”, while Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being “disrespectful.”

“You don’t have the cards at this time,” Trump said in February, while Zelenskyy intervened and did not agree. “With us, you start having letters. At this time, you don’t have your play cards, your play cards, you are playing with the lives of millions of people. You are playing with World War II. You are playing with World War II.”

“Have you said ‘thanks’ once, all this meeting? No, in this whole meeting, have you said ‘thank you?'”, Vance, told Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy’s voice remained to a large extent, while Vance and Trump raised his. In the midst of chaos, a journalist asked: What happens if Russia violates the fire?

“What if something?” Mr. Trump replied. “What happens if a bomb falls into your head right now? Ok?”

Today’s meeting at the White House with Ukraine and other European nations is “the first meeting in such format, and is very serious,” Zelenskyy wrote in X.

He thanked Keith Kellogg, the special envoy of Ukraine and Russia, for a meeting before the meeting at the White House, publishing a video that showed a warm greeting between the two and their discussions.

“We discuss the situation of the battlefield and our strong diplomatic capacities: Ukraine and all of Europe along with the United States,” Zelenskyy said in his position.

He arrived in Washington on Sunday.

The Ukrainian president said that the Russian attacks against Ukrainian cities continued during the night, and two children were among those killed.

“People simply slept when the Russian army launched strikes in the cities,” Zelenskyy said.

“Russia can only be forced to peace through force, and President Trump has that strength,” he wrote. “We have to do everything right to make peace happen. Thank you!”

On Sunday, a series of European leaders announced that they would accompany Zelenskyy on their trip to Washington, including:

• EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen
• NATO general secretary Mark Rutte
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• French president Emannuel Macron
• Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni
• Finnish president Alexander Stubb

Mr. Trump published in Truth Social on Monday morning that “we have never had so many European leaders here at the same time. A great honor for the United States! Let’s see what the results will be.”

Trump will meet with Zelenskyy at the Oval office before holding a broader meeting with participating European leaders, with both partially open events to cameras.

Reporters are expected to be taken to the beginning of Mr. Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy at 1:15 pm, as well as part of the meeting with European leaders at 3 pm, those times are subject to changes, since meetings can last a long time. There is no press conference scheduled with Mr. Trump and any European leader.

Other US officials will be in the Oval office for the meeting with Zelenskyy, including vice president JD Vance, Rubio, the White House Cabinet Chief, Susie Wiles, the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff and the special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellog.

Here is the full schedule, published by the White House:

• Noon: European leaders arrive
• 1 pm: Mr. Trump greets Zelenskyy
• 1:15 pm: Bilateral meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy at the Oval Office
• 2:15 pm: Mr. Trump greets European leaders in the state dining room
• 2:30 pm: Mr. Trump and European leaders take a “family photo”
• 3 pm: Mr. Trump celebrates a multilateral meeting with European leaders in the east room

Blond saying In “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that, although there was no “great progress” at the Alaska summit on Friday, resulted in “enough movement” to justify Monday’s conversations.

“If not, we wouldn’t be having Zelenskyy flying so far,” said Rubio. “We would not have that all Europeans come here. Now we understand and take with a grain of salt, I do not say that we are on the edge of a peace agreement, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow -up meeting with Zelenskyy and the Europeans, enough movement so that we can devote even more time to this.”

On the possibility of new sanctions to Russia, such as the secondary sanctions that Mr. Trump has threatened To impose, Rubio said that punishing Russia now causes Moscow to disconnect.

“At the time the president puts those additional sanctions, that is the end of the conversations. Basically, he has locked in at least another year and a half of war, death and destruction,” said Rubio. “Unfortunately, we can end there, but we don’t want to end there. We want to end a peace agreement that ends this war so that Ukraine can continue with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be sure that this will never happen again.”

Rubio said that “both sides” will have to make concessions. “This is how these agreements are made, we like it or not,” he told Brennan.

Read more here.

Putin agreed at Alaska summit To allow the United States and its European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee that resembles the NATO collective defense mandate as part of an eventual agreement to end the 3 1/2 -year war in Ukraine, said the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff on Sunday.

“We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer a protection similar to article 5, which is one of the true reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he told the “State of the Union” of CNN. He added that “it was the first time we listened to the Russians to agree with that” and called it “that they changed the game.”

Article 5, in the heart of the Military Alliance of 32 members, states that an armed attack against one or more of the members will be considered an attack against all members.

Witkoff, who had joined Rubio for conversations in a military base in Alaska, offered few details about how such an agreement would work. But it seemed to be an important change for Putin and could serve as a solution to its old objection to the possible membership of Ukraine NATO.

Read more here.