As everyone remembers, the first Trump-Zelensky meeting at the White House, which took place in February, did not go well for Zelensky. It seemed to start out fairly smoothly and then devolved into a shouting match. The Ukrainian Ambassador’s reaction sort of summed it up as it was happening.
WATCH: The moment the Ukranian Ambassador to the United States realized Zelenskyy f*¢k3d up 💀 pic.twitter.com/lHqHOQWFmI
— Jessica 🇺🇸 (@RealJessica05) February 28, 2025
Today, Zelensky showed up in a black suit this time (minus a tie). President Trump seemed to appreciate that.
President Trump greets Zelenskyy at the Whitehouse.
He compliments him on his suit 😁😂🤣
Zelenskyy was given some good advice pre meeting!That’s my President!! 🦅 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/qtsCJUlfdc
— Rochellemaryn 🌹🕊️ (@RochelleAz) August 18, 2025
Then there was a press conference inside the Oval Office and the suit did come up. Zelensky even cracked a joke at the reporter for wearing the “same suit.”
🚨 LMAO! REPORTER to Zelensky: “You look fabulous in that suit!”
TRUMP: “I said the same thing! That’s the one that attacked you last time.”
ZELENSKY TO REPORTER: “I remember that. You’re in the same suit. I changed mine.” pic.twitter.com/FsGNeqv3DE
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2025
Another issue that came up last time was the accusation that Zelensky didn’t express any gratitude. This time around he was careful to do that right from the start, thanks President Trump for the invitation and for a letter sent by the First Lady.
🚨 JUST IN: Zelensky starts off the meeting by THANKING President Trump for his support from the Oval Office
I guess he learned his lesson from JD Vance SCOLDING him last time 🤣 pic.twitter.com/pYdmncHCwt
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 18, 2025
And it’s fair to say the change in approach goes both ways. Last time, Zelensky kept talking about the need for security guarantees. This time, President Trump has brought up that exact issue several times, saying there would be a lot of help with security if a peace agreement were reached.
“There’s going to be a lot of help,” President Trump says of potential security guarantees for Ukraine. He says he will discuss those details later with the European leaders who have traveled to Washington with President Zelensky.
Another focus today seems to be on moving toward trilateral talks with Trump, Putin and Zelensky all in the same room. Zelensky said that Ukraine was ready for this.
🇺🇦🇺🇸 ZELENSKY: WE ARE READY FOR TRILATERAL MEETING
Zelensky:
“So we need to stop this war, and we need the support of American and European partners.
And we are ready for trilateral meeting.”
Trump:
“We’re gonna have a phone call [with Putin] right after these meetings… https://t.co/fKvHnR3MwT pic.twitter.com/Tcp7KR8BPY
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 18, 2025
Trump made this point as well as he closed out the press conference, saying he’d be talking to Putin about the next step almost immediately.
TRUMP says Putin is “expecting my call” following his meeting with Zelenskyy:
“We may or may not have a [trilateral meeting]. If we don’t have a trilat then the fighting continues… if we have a trilat, there’s a good chance of maybe ending it.” pic.twitter.com/k8RIvOLPwJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 18, 2025
Zelensky has previously said that he would only discuss trading land or giving up territory during a trilateral meeting.
NOW – Zelensky says Ukraine’s constitution makes giving up land “impossible,” and should only be discussed at a trilateral meeting; if Russia “refuses,” more sanctions “must” be imposed. pic.twitter.com/7wicKa5erW
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 17, 2025
There’s an interesting thread on X today talking about why Ukrainians are unwilling to give up the remaining parts of the Donbas that Russia wants but hasn’t succeeded in taking thus far.
Here, we are mainly talking about the non-occupied part of Donetsk oblast, since the northern part of Luhansk oblast is mainly rural and has been occupied without big fights in spring 2022.
This is what Russia took in 30 month (after the last ukrainian counter-offensive). pic.twitter.com/DBiX9Jqp8F
— Clément Molin (@clement_molin) August 18, 2025
So in 3 years of fight, with the main battles being waged in Donetsk oblast, Russia only took one “big” city (80k inhabitants) and smaller towns, all located in the periphery of Donetsk.
They still have to fight for the big cities of ukrainian controled Donbass.
— Clément Molin (@clement_molin) August 18, 2025
Who would be crazy enough to give away without a fight a total worth of more than 600k pop cities, while Russia only took ~250k pop cities in 3 years of war ?
This, without forgetting the area has industrial and mining potential, even if partly destroyed by 11 years of war. pic.twitter.com/1afPPMxjtI
— Clément Molin (@clement_molin) August 18, 2025
Finally, as mentioned above, a bunch of European leaders have also flown in today to take part in discussions later today.
Zelensky was joined by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Mark Rutte, Secretary-General of NATO.
Just after noon, the European leaders arrived one by one at the White House…
According to the White House schedule, Trump was scheduled to first meet with Zelensky at 1:15 p.m. before greeting the European leaders, followed by a multilateral meeting with all parties at 3:00 p.m.
So it’s going to be a few hours before we have any real sense of how these talks with European leaders went. As we’ve seen before, things can change suddenly and dramatically. If anything dramatic does happen, I’ll update this post later today.
