Analysis: Trump, Zelenskyy play nice as European leaders urge tough stance on Russia

WASHINGTON — It was one part diplomatic summit, one part emergency intervention. But President Donald Trump did not back down Monday when face-to-face with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and a group of European leaders.

There was no bickering between Trump and Zelenskyy this time in the Oval Office, as Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked his American counterpart for hosting the impromptu Western summit and pushing to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Later, in a broader meeting with the European leaders, Trump was the lone Western leader to publicly mention “the possible exchanges of territory” — something Putin insisted on three days earlier.

“We need to stop this war to stop Russia and we need support from American and European partners,” Zelenskyy said as Trump nodded.

After Trump reportedly agreed to a number of things during his Friday summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin that would be tilted heavily in Russia’s favor, Zelenskyy and a list of major European leaders flocked to the White House to talk with the Nobel Peace Prize-focused U.S. president.

The leaders of France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the European Commission and NATO arrived one-by-one to the White House’s South Portico as a U.S. military honor guard stood on either side of the driveway.

As he sat alongside Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Trump said of the deal he still hoped to broker: “This is very long term. We’re not talking about a two-year peace, and then we end up in this mess again — We’re going to make sure that everything is good.”

That came after the European leaders watched Friday’s Alaska summit “with foreboding,” according to Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, adding: “The problem in the past has been Europe’s unwillingness, politically and militarily, to rise to the challenge.”

“With Washington wavering and Moscow menacing, Europe faces a strategic moment — a choice either to assume responsibility for its own defense and security or to remain dangerously dependent on forces beyond its control,” Kempe wrote for the think tank, adding of the European leaders: “What they’ve recognized … is that if they aren’t at his (Trump’s) table, they are on the menu.”

Here are three takeaways from the impromptu White House summit:

Advantage: Putin

Details of the Anchorage encounter began to trickle out Saturday morning, following late-night conference calls on board Air Force One, first between Trump and Zelenskyy before European leaders were added. The mosaic of what Trump and Putin discussed left new doubts about Zelenskyy agreeing to any one of them as Western leaders struggle to stitch together a peace pact.

Trump dropped his push for an immediate ceasefire, siding with the Russian president that a long-term peace plan would be preferable. That would take months to finalize, allowing Putin to continue his battlefield assault. Advantage: Putin.

The two leaders reportedly moved off so-called “land-swaps,” and toward Moscow’s long-held demand for the entire Donbas region of Ukraine, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea and other areas not currently held by Russian forces. Donbas also is mineral-rich. Advantage: Putin.

Trump has backed off slapping new sanctions or tariffs on Russia over its brutal conduct of the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that such moves would end the peace talks. Advantage: Putin.

The peace process remained, even after Monday’s tense talks, very much still alive, leaving the Nobel within reach. Advantage: Trump.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen in a Friday evening statement said “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

“President Trump appears to have been played yet again by Vladimir Putin. The President rolled out a red carpet and warmly greeted a murderous dictator on American soil and reports indicate he got nothing concrete in return,” the New Hampshire Democrat said of the surreal scenes on Friday, also saying lawmakers should be prepared to take action.

“Enough is enough. If President Trump won’t act, Congress must do so decisively by passing crushing sanctions when we return in the coming weeks,” Shaheen said. “There is no appetite in Congress to entertain a relationship with Russia while Putin continues to kidnap Ukrainian children and murder innocent civilians.”

Notably, Zelenskyy on Monday did not criticize any of those reported details from the Anchorage summit.

During the broader meeting, he called his one-on-one with Trump a “very good meeting” that was “constructive” and “specific.”

He also praised Trump for a “strong signal” that the Trump administration appears “ready for security guarantees” to Kyiv. Zelenskyy, during both sessions, laid out his priorities for a potential deal: the return of detained Ukrainian children and other prisoners, the security guarantees and a strong Ukrainian military.

‘We’ll be involved’

Notably, Trump did not attempt to put any distance between himself and those reported details during weekend social media posts nor during a 26-minute media appearance alongside Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Monday.

“I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat, and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” he said of a so-called “trilateral” meeting featuring himself, Zelenskyy and Putin.

Trump also appeared to drive a dagger into the push for an immediate ceasefire, which he had championed as a top goal as recently as Friday morning.

“I don’t think you need a ceasefire. You know, if you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires,” he told reporters. “I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason, because you’d stop killing people immediately, as opposed to in two weeks or one week, or whatever it takes.” But several of the European leaders on Monday did stress the need for a ceasefire.

Instead, Trump said: “But we can work a deal where we’re working on a peace deal.”

Securing stability long-term would require help from European countries and the United States to help Ukraine defend itself. On that topic, Trump signaled he would be ready to deploy American military troops to the former Soviet state.

European troops would “be involved. … There’ll be a lot of help when it comes to security, there’s going to be a lot of help. It’s going to be good,” Trump said. “They are the first line of defense because they’re there, they’re Europe. But we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.”

Trump’s in a hurry

Trump has his foot on the diplomatic gas pedal.

“All of the discussions that we’ve had, we’ve covered a lot of territory, and I spoke indirectly with President Putin. Today, we’re going to call President Putin right after this meeting,” Trump said of a meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders in the East Room. “I’m sure we’re going to have a solid meeting, good meeting, maybe a great meeting. And we’re going to try and work out a trilat after that.”

Trump also made clear he wants to pursue a final deal sooner rather than later.

“We’re going to try and work out a trilat after that and see if we can get it finished, put this to sleep, because this is not since the Second World War has there been anything like this,” Trump said.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is announced each October, and Trump has made it clear he’s interested in the prize.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called it “a new phase” because “after three-years-and-a-half that we didn’t see any kind of sign from the Russian side that there was a willing(ness) for dialogue,” adding: “So something is changing. Something has changed. Thanks to you. Thanks also to the bravery of Ukraine.”

But she also appeared to try keeping Trump from slipping any further toward Putin’s demands.

“And the reason why I mention it is that we also have to (remember) that if we want to reach peace,” she said, “and if we want to guarantee justice, we have to do it united.”