{"id":161127,"date":"2025-08-18T17:02:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-trump-vows-to-stop-war-as-starmer-and-other-leaders-arrive-at-white-house-for-zelenskyy-talks-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T17:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:02:59","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-trump-vows-to-stop-war-as-starmer-and-other-leaders-arrive-at-white-house-for-zelenskyy-talks-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-trump-vows-to-stop-war-as-starmer-and-other-leaders-arrive-at-white-house-for-zelenskyy-talks-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Trump vows to stop war as Starmer and other leaders arrive at White House for Zelenskyy talks – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump says he knows “exactly” what he’s doing and he’ll stop the war in Ukraine – as Keir Starmer and other European leaders arrive at the White House ahead of talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Watch and follow live below.
Monday 18 August 2025 17:58, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump will come face-to-face again shortly in Washington.
It’ll be the fourth time the two leaders have met in person this year, with each meeting unique in its own individual way.
Here’s a reminder of Trump and Zelenskyy’s up and down dealings from the day they first met…
Going back to the very beginning, the pair first spoke in April 2019 after Zelenskyy became Ukraine’s president, with Trump calling him to congratulate the former actor on an “incredible” election victory. 
At the time, Republican allies were stoking allegations that Joe Biden – then the frontrunner to be the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election – had lobbied Ukraine to dismiss its top prosecutor to obstruct a probe into energy firm Burisma, which had Biden’s son Hunter as one of its board members.
In a phone call in July that year, the US president suggested that in exchange for future military support for Ukraine, Zelenskyy should help launch an investigation into Hunter.
That call formed the basis for Trump’s first impeachment by the Democratic-controlled House in December 2019 on abuse of power and obstruction of justice charges. 
Trump was later acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
After they first met face-to-face at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Zelenskyy said there was “no blackmail” involved in the phone call.
In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, with Trump now out of office, he condemned the war as “appalling”.
He added he was praying for Ukrainians, and singled out Zelenskyy as “brave” for staying in Kyiv.
But as the 2024 election approached, Trump claimed he would be able to stop the war in 24 hours.
Doubting the claims, Zelenskyy invited Trump to Ukraine during an interview with Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News, in November 2023<\/a>.<\/strong>
Trump and Zelenskyy then met face-to-face in September 2024, this time at Trump Tower in New York, where they discussed ending the war.
After Trump returned to office in January this year, he met with a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia, prompting anger from Ukrainian officials.
In turn, the US president called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” and said he “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”.
The two leaders met face to face again at the White House in February – a notorious occasion cut short due to a clash in the Oval Office<\/a>.<\/strong>
The next month saw Zelenskyy agree to a minerals deal worth $500bn (\u00a3394bn) in potential revenue and describe the White House meeting as “regrettable”.
Trump later said he and Zelenskyy were “very much on track,” before the pair met in person again at the funeral of Pope Francis on 26 April<\/a> <\/strong>in the Vatican.
Since then, Trump has grown more critical of Russia for its ongoing attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
The US leader has resumed military aid (albeit paid for by European partners) to Ukraine in recent months, and threatened Moscow with sanctions.
But he also agreed to last week’s Alaska meeting with Putin, which critics said gave the Russian leader a red-carpet reward for his actions.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has arrived at the White House.
He is the last European and NATO leader to arrive.
Macron wasn’t at the Ukrainian embassy with the others as he landed later in Washington.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz has arrived as well.
Like the other leaders, he was greeted on the South Lawn, before heading inside.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed why he met with European and NATO leaders at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington – ahead of meeting Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian leader says during the meeting the leaders “coordinated our positions.”
In a post on Telegram, he adds: “We must stop the killings, and I thank our partners who are working for this and, ultimately, for a reliable and dignified peace. 
“Together with the leaders of Finland, Great Britain, Italy, the European Commission and the NATO Secretary General, we coordinated our positions before the meeting with President Trump. 
“Ukraine is ready for a real ceasefire and the establishment of a new security architecture. We need peace.”
Read his full message here…
 Finnish President Alexander Stubb has arrived at the White House.
He is the latest European and NATO leader to arrive on the South Lawn.
Like the others, he was greeted by a White House official, and then headed straight inside.
We’re now only waiting on France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz.
Air raid sirens are sounding in Kyiv, where international affairs editor Dominic Wagorn<\/a><\/b> is reporting.
It bears out what the Ukrainians are living with as negotiations rumble on, he says.
“The Ukrainians would say none of this… is really helping their situation.
“They are still getting bombed. They’re still getting attacked by drones every night.”
At least ten people were killed in Kharkiv last night.
“And Donald Trump appears to have switched diplomatically into the hands of Vladimir Putin, supporting the Russian leader’s key positions.”
Waghorn says Kyiv has been spared airstrikes in recent days, “presumably because Putin doesn’t want to be seen to be attacking the Ukrainian capital at such a sensitive moment of diplomacy”.
Judith Gough, a former UK ambassador to Ukraine, told Sky News shortly afterwards that this action shows Putin doesn’t really want peace.
“I think the challenge in all of this, as you have been reporting, is that there is no real sign that Putin wants peace in Ukraine,” Gough says.
“It is unusual to be negotiating a peace agreement before you have a ceasefire. 
“And quite frankly, if Putin wanted peace, he could just stop firing at Ukraine, and in cities across the rest of Ukraine.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has arrived at the White House now.
She’s the latest European leader to arrive on the South Lawn – with leaders from France, Finland and Germany still due.
Sir Keir Starmer has arrived at the White House.
He was the third European leader after NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He was greeted by a senior White House official after arriving at the South Lawn.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also arrived at the White House.
European leaders have started to arrive at the White House.
First to arrive was NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Watch the arrivals live in the stream at the top of the blog.
We’re also expecting:
And here are all the key UK timings to be aware of – this is just how it’s scheduled to go, and is subject to change:<\/b>
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

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Donald Trump says he knows “exactly” what he’s doing and he’ll stop the war in Ukraine – as Keir Starmer and other European leaders arrive at the White House ahead of talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Watch and follow live below.Monday 18 August 2025 17:58, UKPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video playerVolodymyr Zelenskyy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}