Donald Trump has welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Keir Starmer and other European leaders are also there for talks about ending the war in Ukraine. Watch and follow live below.
Monday 18 August 2025 20:59, UK
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Donald Trump and leaders from Europe and NATO spoke in front of the world’s media earlier in the White House’s State Dining Room.
The US leader kicked off the remarks, and then every leader spoke briefly.
We brought you the latest as it happened, so scroll down to catch up, but let’s recap it here at a glance:
A former British ambassador to Russia says it is “absurd” to talk about a peace deal with Vladimir Putin, despite the hopeful tone of meetings at the White House this evening
“There isn’t going to be a peace deal with Mr Putin about Ukraine. That’s not possible,” says Sir Laurie Bristow, speaking to presenter Jonathan Samuels earlier.
“A ceasefire, I think, is actually possible. But the main thing for a ceasefire to actually happen is for Mr Putin to believe that it’s his best option and that all other options, including fighting on, are worse
“For there to be a proper ceasefire, Mr Putin needs to be under real pressure.”
He must believe the West will do what it takes to enable Ukraine to defend itself, says Bristow.
When Samuels pushes back that Europe and America haven’t given Ukraine all the means they needed to defend themselves for the entire war, Bristow says “the Ukrainians have had a lot”.
“What really, really matters now is what Mr Putin believes we will do next to support Ukraine.”
He adds: “Any assurance that Mr Putin gives to anybody is completely worthless.
“And the heart of this, any security assurances, are about deterring Russia from attacking Ukraine again. It’s simply not plausible that the Russians would ever agree to an arrangement set up to deter them.”
Speaking after the so-called “family photo” of Trump and European leaders, Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates points out the president “entered the room standing alongside President Zelenskyy, he left the room alongside President Zelenskyy”.
He adds: “In many ways, the other European leaders that you saw in that family photo are the wingmen, the back-up, for President Zelenskyy.”
This includes the likes of Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte.
Coates says the group will have been “relieved” by the meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump earlier in the day, as it “reversed” the tension seen earlier this year.
He says there will also be happiness among leaders that Trump took a “step forward” when it comes to a US security guarantee for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb starts his words with a joke with Donald Trump about his “youth” – the US leader described Stubb as young and powerful, something Stubb joked he would tell his wife.
Stubb goes on to say he thinks: “In the past two weeks, we’ve probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years.”
Stubb explains why he is present representing Finland – because his country shares an 800-mile border with Russia.
“We, of course, have our own historical experience with Russia… and if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944, and I’m sure that we’ll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia’s war of aggression and find and get a lasting, and just peace. The situation is very difficult, but that’s why we’re here,” Stubb adds.
Trump spoke again briefly after Stubb, then the public-facing section of the meeting finished.
The leaders are now heading back to the Oval Office.
Sir Keir Starmer is speaking next.
The prime minister says the assembled leaders can “make a really important step forward, a historic step” on security guarantees for Ukraine tonight.
He speaks following Emmanuel Macron, and says: “When we talk about security, we’re talking about the security, not just of Ukraine, we’re talking about the security of Europe and the United Kingdom as well.”
Starmer continues: “I really feel that we can, I think, with the right approach this afternoon, make real progress, especially on the security guarantees.”
Starmer says Trump’s suggestion of Article Five-style guarantees fits with what the “Coalition of the Willing” has been working on for months.
“With you coming alongside what we’ve already developed, I think we could take a really important step forward today, a historic step, actually, could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe,” Starmer says.
Taking his turn to speak, French President Emmanuel Macron also welcomes the talks.
He then adds that, while a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the US is important, a “quadrilateral” summit will also need to take place after.
It is not clear if Macron means a meeting in which just France takes part – or if he means NATO, the EU, or the Coalition of the Willing should be the fourth member.
The French leader says this is necessary as “when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent”.
One guarantee Macron clearly wants to come out of any deal is that Ukraine will be able to have a “credible” army for “the years and decades to come”.
He says this will come with a commitment from the European leaders at the table to provide their security guarantee to Ukraine.
The French president says Trump can be sure “the Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation”.
As the various leaders speak from the White House together, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte praises President Trump for the fact he “broke the deadlock” with President Putin by “starting the dialogue”.
Rutte adds that “if we play this well, we could end this”, referring to the war in Ukraine.
The NATO leader then adds that it is “really crucial” that Trump is saying he is “willing to participate” in security guarantees for Ukraine – saying it’s “a big step” and a “breakthrough”.
In response, Trump praises NATO countries for increasing their defence spending from 2% of GDP “that wasn’t always paid” to 5% “that is paid”.
EU leader on ‘Article Five-like security guarantees’
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU commission, also welcomes the security guarantee being provided by the Americans.
“It’s very good to hear that we’re working on the security guarantees, Article Five-like security guarantees,” she says.
This is the principle that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all of the alliance.
Germany’s chancellor says “the path [to peace] is open,” but warns any next meeting should lead to a ceasefire.
Friedrich Merz is speaking third in Washington.
He thanks Trump first, and says the summit in Alaska “opened the path” to peace.
“But now the way is open for complicated negotiations,” Merz adds.
The German leader goes on: “We all would like to see a ceasefire.
“I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let’s work on that and let’s try to put pressure on Russia.”
Trump pushes back slightly on Merz’s words, saying he hadn’t needed a ceasefire in ending any other wars, but saying he would welcome one if needed.
The US leader says: “So if we can do the ceasefire, great, and, if we don’t do a ceasefire… many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us great points.”
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni reminds the room of Ukrainian “bravery” on the battlefield in stalling Russian advances and the unity that was needed to support them in doing so.
“If we want to reach peace and if we want to guarantee justice, we have to do it united,” she says.
“You can obviously count on Italy – as it was from the beginning, we are on the side of Ukraine.
“We will talk about many important topics. The first one is security guarantees, how to be sure that it won’t happen again, which is the precondition of every kind of peace.
“I’m happy that we will begin from a proposal, which is the [NATO] Article Five model.”
Speaking alongside European leaders and Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the group had a “very good conversation”.
“We spoke about very sensitive points. The first one is security guarantees.
“Security in Ukraine depends on the United States, and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts.
“A lot of countries are on the side of Ukraine, our people, and all of us want to finish this war.
“We will speak more about security guarantees. This is very important that the United States gives such strong signals and is ready for security guarantees.”
He again thanks Melania Trump for her letter to Vladimir Putin about abducted Ukrainian children, as he did in the Oval Office earlier.
“What is very important is that all the sensitive things, territorial and etc., we will discuss on the level of leaders during trilateral meeting and President Trump will try to organise such a meeting.”
Zelenskyy adds: “I showed the president a lot of details on the battlefield, on the map. Thank you for the map, by the way.”
Trump and Zelenskyy then joke good-naturedly about making sure the Ukrainian can take the map home with him.
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