Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed he will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, August 18, in a high-stakes bid to push forward peace efforts amid Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
Announcing the visit on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “ready to work with maximum effort to achieve peace” and highlighted that the talks with Trump would focus on “all the details regarding ending the killing and the war.” He stressed that European involvement was essential at every stage to secure reliable guarantees alongside the United States.
The move comes just days after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, for the first US–Russia summit in nearly a decade. While the White House described the meeting as “making progress,” it stopped short of calling it a breakthrough. No concrete deal was reached, though Trump and Putin both signalled willingness to continue dialogue.
Zelenskyy revealed on social media that he had a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump following the Alaska summit, which included more than an hour of one-on-one discussion before European leaders joined in. “President Trump informed me about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion. It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation,” he wrote.
Crucially, Zelenskyy expressed support for Trump’s proposal of a trilateral format involving Ukraine, the United States, and Russia. “Key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” he noted.
The White House has confirmed the upcoming Washington talks, underscoring that Trump is keeping close contact with NATO allies even as he seeks to position himself as a broker between Kyiv and Moscow. After the Alaska meeting, Trump told reporters, “there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” while Putin claimed the two sides had reached an “understanding” but cautioned Europeans not to “torpedo the nascent progress.”
For his part, Putin reiterated Moscow’s long-standing position that all “root causes of the crisis” must be resolved before lasting peace can be achieved. He added that he and Trump agreed on the importance of ensuring Ukraine’s security, though he offered no specifics.
Zelenskyy, however, continues to pin hopes on the trilateral framework. Even before Trump and Putin met, the Ukrainian leader had said he hoped such talks would “open up a real path towards a just peace.”
