President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump expressed hope that Monday’s critical talks with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House could lead to trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Monday’s hastily assembled meeting comes after Trump met on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said that the onus is now on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions that he said could end the war. POTUS: “It’s an honor to have the President of Ukraine with us… I think progress is being made… We had a good meeting, as you know, just a short while ago with the President of Russia — and I think there’s a possibility that something could come out of it.” “If everything works out today, we’ll have a trilat,” Trump said, referring to possible trilateral talks among Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump. “We’re going to work with Russia, we’re going to work with Ukraine.” Zelenskyy also expressed openness to trilateral talks. “We are ready for trilateral as president said,” Zelenskyy said. “It’s a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.” POTUS: “People are being killed and we want to stop that… I know the President, I know myself, and I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended.” POTUS: “We’re going to work with Ukraine, we’re going to work with everybody, and we’re going to make sure that if there’s peace, that peace is going to stay long-term… We’re not talking about a 2-year peace and then we end up in this mess again.” Trump on deploying US troops to Ukraine: “We’ll let you know that maybe later today… We’ll be involved.” POTUS: “I don’t think you need a ceasefire. If you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires … I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason: because you’d stop killing people immediately.” Trump is first holding one-on-one talks with Zelenskyy. The two are then scheduled to gather with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The European leaders were left out of Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, and they want to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. Many arrived at the White House with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine’s interests — a rare show of diplomatic force. By coming as a group, they hope to avoid debacles like Zelenskyy’s February meeting in the Oval Office, where Trump chastised him for not showing enough gratitude for U.S. military aid. Trump and Zelenskyy were due to meet in the Oval Office before European leaders join them in the East Room for talks. The meetings are also a test of America’s relationship with its closest allies after the European Union and United Kingdom accepted Trump’s tariff hikes partly because they wanted his support on Ukraine. “We understand that we shouldn’t expect Putin to voluntarily abandon aggression and new attempts at conquest,” Zelenskyy said in an X posting before arriving at the White House. “That is why pressure must work, and it must be joint pressure – from the United States […]  | Read More The Yeshiva World