Seoul Gazette - Ukraine allies meet with hopes of peace talks breakthrough

Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.

The Ukraine war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, defying Trump's push to end it.

A face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since Russia's brutal invasion nearly three-and-a-half years ago.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Washington for the talks on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, said France and Britain would hold a meeting on Tuesday with around 30 of Kyiv's allies.

The virtual meeting of the so-called "coalition of the willing" would "keep them up to date on what was decided", Macron told French news channel LCI. "Right after that, we'll start concrete work with the Americans."

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are co-hosting the meeting, which will "discuss next steps" for Ukraine, a UK government spokesperson told AFP, as Kyiv seeks backing from allies to enforce any peace deal.

Macron suggested Geneva could host peace talks, but said it was "up to Ukraine" to decide whether to make concessions on territory, including parts of the eastern Donbas region still under its control.

"Putin has rarely honoured his commitments," he added, calling the Russian leader a "predator, an ogre at our gates" -- comments that underscored wider European wariness.

Putin "has constantly been a force for destabilisation. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power," Macron said.

- Open to talks -

Trump, who last week held talks with Putin in Alaska, wrote on his Truth Social network after Monday's meetings that "everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine".

"At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky," he added.

Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was part of the European delegation, said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks.

Zelensky said he was "ready" to meet his bitter foe Putin, while in Moscow, a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the "idea" of direct talks with Ukraine.

Trump's summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce any ceasefire, with no let-up since in daily Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.

Zelensky then rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Commission and NATO then announced that they would also be attending, in a pointed show of support.

Zelensky also met one-on-one in the Oval Office with Trump in their first encounter there since their acrimonious blow-up in February.

The Ukrainian president said the meeting was their "best" yet, with little of the tension that erupted when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of TV cameras for not being "grateful" for US support.

- Security guarantees -

Trump meanwhile said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that Putin had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv's long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.

The guarantees "would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America", he said.

The Financial Times, citing a document seen by the newspaper, said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.

Zelensky later spoke to reporters about a $90-billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.

The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.

Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO -- both key demands made by Putin.

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Q.Min--SG