On Monday, Aug. 18., U.S. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House, just days after Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the meetings, they discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and the possibility of a trilateral meeting with Putin.
FP’s staff and contributors provide a guide on what’s already taken place—and what to watch for.
Live coverage on this page has ended. FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration can be found here.
World Leaders Debrief Trump’s Meetings With Zelensky and Putin
The initial meetings are over. Now the meetings about the meetings have begun.
Nearly three dozen leaders met virtually on Tuesday, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a delegation of European leaders met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss the outcome of the meetings in Washington and coordinate next steps. Those next steps could involve a bilateral meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin—and/or a trilateral meeting that would see Trump also attend.
The call was convened by what has been dubbed the “coalition of the willing,” a group of 31 countries that are committed to defending Ukraine against Russia. The group is led by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom were among the seven European leaders backing Zelensky up in Washington on Monday.
According to a statement from Starmer’s office, the virtual meeting focused heavily on plans to provide “robust” U.S. and European security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any future peace deal with Russia, which could include “the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended.” They also “discussed how further pressure – including through sanctions – could be placed on Putin until he showed he was ready to take serious action to end his illegal invasion.”
7 Lingering Questions After the Trump Ukraine Summit
After a strange, made-for-television summit in Washington on Monday meant to bring Russia’s escalating war on Ukraine closer to the conclusion that U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to achieve even before taking office, nearly all the big questions remain unanswered. Here are just a few of the major issues that the United States, Ukraine, its European backers, and Russia will be grappling with in days and weeks to come.
Why Steve Witkoff Is Trump’s Master of Disaster
Remember when U.S. President Donald Trump declared that Russia would face “severe consequences” if it didn’t agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine? When he threatened to impose draconian sanctions if Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t agree to peace? When he told Fox News that he wouldn’t “be happy” if Putin didn’t stop the fighting?
All these things happened just before the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Aug. 15. Then, the U.S. media was full of feverish reports on Trump’s supposed vexation with Putin and alleged shift toward Ukraine. Since the U.S.-Russia mutual admiration event last week, all that has vanished down the memory hole, melted away like the snows of yesteryear. As many of the same reporters once again gush about the positive vibes emerging from Trump’s meetings with Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House yesterday, let’s keep their previous mistakes in mind.
Russia and Ukraine Are as Far Apart as Ever
If nothing else, Donald Trump doesn’t shy away from high stakes meetings. Always supremely confident in his own abilities to bend others to his will, the U.S. president spent the past few days engaging with leaders on both sides of the war between Russia and Ukraine to try to end the most destructive war in Europe since 1945.
For all his efforts, however, the prospect of finding a resolution to the conflict remains as distant today as it was before Trump threw the diplomatic effort into full gear a couple of weeks ago. The fundamental reality confronting Trump is that Russia and Ukraine are pursuing irreconcilable objectives. Ukraine wants to be secure, sovereign, and independent. Russia wants to subjugate Ukraine and control its destiny.
Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy
The combination of that weird summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin and the only slightly less bizarre gathering of NATO leaders in Washington, was the latest reminder that U.S. President Donald Trump is a terrible negotiator, a true master of the “art of the giveaway.” He doesn’t prepare, doesn’t have subordinates lay the groundwork beforehand, and arrives at each meeting not knowing what he wants or where his red lines are. He has no strategy and isn’t interested in the details, so he just wings it.
As we learned during his first term, when he wasted time on those irrelevant reality-show meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, all Trump really craves is attention, coupled with dramatic visuals that suggest he is in charge. The substance of any deal he might make is secondary if not irrelevant, which is why some of the trade agreements he’s recently announced are less favorable for the United States than he claims.
The only reason that anyone pays any attention to Trump’s erratic diplomatic blundering is that he happens to be the president of the world’s most powerful country, and cowardly members of Congress from the cult-like Republican Party continue to indulge his every whim. But when lightweights like Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and amateur diplomat Steve Witkoff go up against the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, you should expect the latter side to pick U.S. pockets cleanly. Just ask yourself: Is there anything Trump got for the United States, its allies, or Ukraine when he met with Putin in Alaska? Did Putin give anything up? For that matter, what concessions did Trump get from those European leaders who showed up to persuade him not to abandon Ukraine?
How Much of Ukraine Does Russia Control?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday alongside a large cohort of European leaders. This comes after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday as part of an ongoing push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
After the Alaska summit, Trump has been accused of aligning with Putin by abandoning previous calls for a cease-fire. Trump over the weekend said that instead of pursuing a “mere ceasefire,” the warring parties should “go directly” to a peace agreement.
In Alaska, Putin also reportedly demanded that Ukraine cede Donetsk and Luhansk, the two territories that constitute the industrial eastern Donbas region, as a condition to end the war—and offered to freeze the conflict along the rest of the front line.
Trump is apparently supportive of this proposal and is raising pressure on Zelensky. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Zelensky could end the war “almost immediately, if he wants to” and suggested that doing so will require Zelensky to accept that Ukraine will never regain Crimea (which Russia illegally seized in 2014) or join NATO. Zelensky has repeatedly stated that he will not give up territory as part of a peace agreement. But as Ukrainian forces continue to face myriad challenges along the roughly 600-mile front line, Zelensky is in a tough position.
To get a clearer picture of what’s being asked of Kyiv, here’s a quick breakdown of where things currently stand on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Key Takeaways From Trump’s Meeting With Zelensky
The scene was familiar—U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sitting in the Oval Office, with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the couch to Trump’s left. But unlike the last time this particular scene unfolded, there was no shouting match and even a few moments of levity.
Here’s what you need to know.
Less fireworks
Zelensky headed off one particular flashpoint from February’s meeting even before a word was said, by wearing a suit this time. He even had a good-natured exchange with Brian Glenn, a correspondent with right-wing news outlet Real America’s Voice whose question about the Ukrainian leader’s more casual attire back in February further stoked an already contentious argument. “You look fabulous in that suit,” Glenn quipped on Monday, before apologizing to Zelensky for his previous attack. “You are in the same suit,” Zelensky shot back, to laughter from Trump and others in the room.
Zelensky also thanked Trump for his continued support on multiple instances, blunting the other infamous attack by Vance that kick-started their disagreement during the last meeting.
Trump also appeared to be in a more gracious mood this time around. “We’re going to have a meeting. I think if everything works out well today, we’re going to have a trilat,” he said, referring to a proposed trilateral meeting with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “And I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that.”
Did Putin Play Trump at the Alaska Summit?
Did the highly anticipated meeting in Alaska alter the trajectory of the war in Ukraine? Or was it just pageantry? As the dust settles on the summit, and as Kyiv, Brussels, and other interested parties react, FP’s Ravi Agrawal assesses the meeting with Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former CIA analyst focused on Russia.
Grading Trump’s Ukraine Diplomacy
U.S. President Donald Trump is personally undertaking a flurry of diplomatic moves to try to find a path to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. After hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Trump on Monday welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, NATO, and the European Commission, in Washington for further talks.
On the latest episode of FP Live, which aired on the morning of Monday, Aug. 18, I spoke with two experts who have closely followed the conflict and its history: Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former CIA analyst focused on Russia, and Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and the author of To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power. Subscribers can watch the full discussion on the video box atop this page. What follows here is a condensed and lightly edited transcript.
How Europe Can Pressure Putin—Without Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump, fresh off his Alaska meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, seems to have cooled on the idea of pressuring Moscow to end the war it started in Ukraine, despite Trump’s recent threats of “severe consequences” if Putin didn’t agree to a cease-fire.
Late Sunday, Trump appeared to revert to his default position of blaming Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for getting invaded by its larger avaricious neighbor. “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on his social media network.
But Europe has plenty of cards to play in this conflict even if the Trump administration has opted for appeasement. The supporting cast joining Zelensky in the White House Monday includes the heads of NATO and the European Union, the Finnish Trump-whisperer-in-chief, and four of the most prominent national leaders in Europe. That raises the prospect that Ukraine and its biggest backers could inject some backbone into the United States’ approach, if not show some spine itself.
“I think the United States and Europe have all the cards. They are just not willing to play them, and that is nowhere more evident than in the realm of economic warfare,” said Tom Keatinge, the director for finance and security at the Royal United Services Institute in the United Kingdom.
“From the start, the G-7 allies have talked a tough game but have never gone all in on sanctions. We have, at every step of the way, fallen short of what we would need” to inflict sufficient economic pain on Russia to force Putin to recalibrate, he said.
To Get Peace in Ukraine, Trump Should Play the Nuclear Card
When U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, Putin was greeted by a flyover of an American B-2 strategic bomber. Such flyovers can be a show of respect for a visiting statesperson, but Putin’s reptilian brain likely also registered fear as the stealthy aircraft roared overhead. He knows better than anyone that the world’s most advanced nuclear bomber could end his life within seconds.
This show of nuclear force followed closely on the heels of Trump’s order to reposition nuclear submarines to the “appropriate regions” in response to threats against the United States made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Some analysts have criticized Trump’s nuclear saber-rattling as dangerous. But in fact, Trump can and should ramp up nuclear threats as part of a successful negotiation strategy to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end.
A Brief History of Trump’s Tumultuous Relationship With Zelensky
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Washington on Aug. 18 for pivotal talks over the future of Russia’s war in Ukraine, he will be backed by several of his European allies.
That may be because when Zelensky was last in town for talks in February, a highly watched diplomatic meeting—which was supposed to draw Kyiv and Washington closer together—rapidly devolved into an explosive shouting match with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
It’s a reflection of the two leaders’ tumultuous and shifting relationship as the Russia-Ukraine war stretches past its third year and Trump vacillates between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Their stormy history goes all the way back to Trump’s first term in office, when the U.S. leader withheld nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine and then urged Zelensky to investigate Trump’s then-political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter—ultimately leading to his first impeachment.
But since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and since Trump made quickly ending the war a central goal of his second presidency, his relationship with Zelensky has become even more important.
Here is a brief timeline of some of the two leaders’ most turbulent moments since Trump returned to office.
Who Zelensky Is Bringing to Washington—and Why
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is coming back to the White House, and this time, he has a phalanx of European leaders backing him up.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz all announced that they would accompany Zelensky when he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.
The first three names on that list will be particularly important when it comes to making a case for Ukraine’s best interests to Trump, whose emphasis on interpersonal relationships drives much of his decision-making.
How Disastrous Was the Trump-Putin Meeting?
U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated goal in meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska was to secure a Russia-Ukraine cease-fire. Putin stiffed him on a cease-fire and got him to instead accept an “understanding” that strikingly advantages Russia. It would require Kyiv to pay with land just to start negotiations of an overall settlement and leave Russian forces far better positioned if talks broke down.
The more we learn about this meeting, the more disastrous it sounds.
Trump’s Putin Gambit Failed—but Maybe It Was Still Worth Trying
U.S. President Donald Trump drew a lot of flak for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin onto U.S. soil for the first time in a decade, complete with a red carpet, a bright “Alaska 2025” sign, and a joint news conference. That was despite getting little from the Russian leader beforehand, save a pledge to continue killing Ukrainians and seizing their territory if the summit didn’t go precisely his way.
And as quickly became clear at the news conference the two leaders held Friday, Trump came away with less than the minimum he had hoped for, which was a temporary cease-fire. Despite Putin’s gracious words to Trump—and Trump’s description of him as a “fantastic” partner—the Russian appeared to give no ground whatsoever on his fundamental position that Ukraine is Russian territory and that he will not compromise.
Trump put his best spin on it all nonetheless. “We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump said, declaring that the talks were “extremely productive” and that “many points were agreed to.” But he acknowledged there was no progress on one that was “probably the most significant,” which may have been a cease-fire in Ukraine. The two walked out of the news conference without taking questions.
‘There’s No Deal Until There’s a Deal’
All eyes were on Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for pivotal talks over the future of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine—without their Ukrainian counterpart at the table.
In the days leading up to the summit, Trump appeared to downplay expectations for the talks and any potential diplomatic breakthroughs. But he struck a tougher tone hours ahead of the talks, telling reporters aboard Air Force One: “I want to see a cease-fire rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today.”
Once in Anchorage, the two leaders appeared cozy, with Trump literally rolling out a red carpet for the Russian leader and even allowing him to ride in Trump’s presidential limousine, known as the “Beast.” The warm reception stood in sharp contrast to the fiery and hostile exchange that occurred when Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February.
While Trump and Putin were initially expected to meet for one-on-one talks, the two leaders were ultimately accompanied by several top advisors in a last-minute change of plans. Trump was joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, while Putin brought Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov. The group met for 2 hours and 45 minutes, according to the Kremlin.
But even after a press conference with both leaders afterward, it’s not entirely clear what the two leaders agreed to, if anything. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said, later adding: “We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
Below is the full rush transcript of Trump and Putin’s press conference.
Russia’s Lavrov Wears USSR Sweatshirt to Trump-Putin Summit
The Russian government is many things, but subtle is not one of them. Ahead of a highly anticipated summit on the Russia-Ukraine war in Alaska on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov engaged in some blatant trolling.
Lavrov arrived in Alaska wearing a CCCP sweatshirt. Those are the Russian initials for “USSR,” which stands for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (aka the Soviet Union). Experts say that Lavrov, who has been Russia’s top diplomat for roughly two decades, knew exactly what he was doing by wearing that sweatshirt. “He wouldn’t do this just by chance,” former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said of Lavrov’s sweatshirt via X.
The war in Ukraine—a former Soviet republic—is widely viewed as a product of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nostalgia for the Soviet Union and imperialistic ambitions.
A post on X by the Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov includes a video that shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walking from a car into a building wearing a CCCP shirt.X screengrab
Putin once referred to the collapse of the USSR as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” And, after ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he compared himself to Peter the Great—effectively portraying himself as a righteous conqueror who’s fighting to restore control over what he views as Russian lands (much of Ukraine was also previously part of the Russian Empire).
The Russian president, a former KGB officer, has also repeatedly suggested that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” and said in June that “the whole of Ukraine is ours.” Putin has falsely claimed that Ukraine, which gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, isn’t a real country and was created by Russia.
Along these lines, Lavrov’s choice of attire garnered a fair amount of attention in terms of the message it appeared to send about Russia’s mentality heading into the Alaska summit between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Who’s With Trump in Alaska
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both arriving at their summit in Alaska accompanied by sizable delegations.
Trump’s delegation, shared by the White House on Friday morning, includes some expected names—Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Also traveling with Trump is his special envoy Steve Witkoff, whose meeting with Putin in Moscow last week set the stage for the Alaska summit.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Alaska separately, the Defense Department confirmed, accompanied by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the supreme allied commander for U.S. forces in Europe and the head of U.S. European command, is also reportedly attending the summit.
There are also a couple of inclusions that appear surprising, considering that the main goal of the meeting is purportedly to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will also be traveling with Trump, opening up the possibility that trade concessions or sanctions relief could be put on the table as part of discussions with Putin. Trump noted that several Russian businessmen are accompanying Putin, as well, but the U.S. leader downplayed suggestions of any economic discussions at the outset. “I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Alaska. “And that’s good, I like that, because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war settled.”
The absence of Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, is notable on paper but perhaps less surprising for Trumpworld observers. Kellogg has repeatedly been sidelined by Trump in his engagements with Putin, with most of those duties falling to Witkoff.
The first meeting of the summit, originally expected to be just the two leaders with their translators, is now set to be a three-on-three. Trump will be joined by Witkoff and Rubio, while Putin will reportedly have alongside him Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, a former diplomat and key government advisor.
The U.S. trio will reportedly be joined after that meeting by Hegseth, Bessent, Lutnick, and Wiles for a broader working lunch.
Update, Aug. 15, 2025: This post was updated to reflect the latest news.