Trump says US will give Ukraine security guarantees – but Europe will ‘take a lot of the burden’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s ready to meet with Vladimir Putin after Donald Trump said the Russian president had agreed to let Ukraine have security guarantees from its allies.

A meeting between the two men could happen before the end of the month, followed by a trilateral summit which includes their US counterpart.

Follow the latest: Trump vows to stop war

It comes after Mr Trump hosted the Ukrainian president and a host of other European leaders at the White House on Monday, just days after he met Mr Putin in Alaska last week.

Among those in attendance were Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

Mr Trump said Mr Putin “agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine”.

He added: “I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure.”

‘Article-Five-like’

The mention of US involvement in security guarantees was welcomed by the European leaders.

Ms Von der Leyen said it was “good to hear” the nations were working on “Article Five-like security guarantees”.

NATO’s Article Five is the principle that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all of them.

Sir Keir said the guarantees would help ensure a “lasting deal”, and one for which there would be consequences if Russia breached it.

Mr Macron said it was not just about Ukraine, but “the whole security of the European continent”.

He added that one guarantee he would want to come out of any deals is that Ukraine should be able to have a “credible” army for “the years and decades to come”.

But there remained signs of some strain between Mr Trump and Europe. His belief that a ceasefire isn’t required to strike a peace deal was challenged Mr Merz, who said he “can’t imagine” a Zelenskyy-Putin meeting taking place without one.

Sky News understands that European leaders and Mr Zelenskyy will stay in Washington for now to continue talks.

The talks including the European leaders came after a Trump-Zelenskyy summit in the Oval Office. It was their first since their infamous sparring match back in February, but this time was far more cordial.

Mr Zelenskyy was complimented on his suit and evoked a few hearty laughs from Mr Trump, who said the US would provide “very good protection” for Ukraine.

Read more: Zelenskyy learned his lesson from last time

Mr Trump revealed during the Oval Office talks that he would have a call with Mr Putin later in the day. He broke up his talks with the Europeans to do so, before returning to update them on what they had discussed.

A Kremlin official, Kirill Dmitriev, later hailed the talks as an “important day for democracy”, but didn’t comment on the issue of security guarantees or possible changes of territory.

At the Alaska summit last Friday, Mr Putin has reportedly made demands to take control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as a condition for ending the war.

In exchange, Russia would give up other Ukrainian territories held by its troops, according to several news reports citing sources close to the matter.

Russian troops currently occupy large parts of the two regions and, in September 2022, Moscow announced it was officially annexing them, alongside the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, in a move rejected and condemned as illegal by the West.

Read more: Putin’s demands would be bitter blow to Ukraine

Trump talks up possible land swaps

Mr Trump is said to be planning to urge Mr Zelenskyy to agree to the conditions as part of a peace deal to end the war – despite the Ukrainian president previously ruling out handing any territory to Moscow.

“We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory,” the US president said ahead of the multilateral talks with Mr Zelenskyy and European leaders.

He said such exchanges would need to take “into consideration the current line of contact”.

He added: “That means the war zone, the war lines that are now, pretty obvious, very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions.”

What happens next?

Mr Zelenskyy and Germany’s Mr Merz both suggested a Zelenskyy-Putin summit could take place within two weeks.

A location has not yet been determined.

A meeting that includes Mr Trump would likely follow in the weeks after.