Zelensky declares he’s ‘ready’ to sit down for face-to-face talks with Putin to end Ukraine war as he and Trump share extraordinary Oval Office love-in ahead of crunch White House summit

Zelensky said he is ‘ready’ to sit down for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to end the Ukraine war as he thanked the US President for his efforts to ‘stop the killing’.

Mr Trump also said he is ready to put US boots on ground to secure a peace settlement – saying ‘there will be a lot of help’ but ‘we’re going to help them out also.’

The meeting was a complete contrast to the Oval Office bust up in February, with the US President praising Mr Zelensky for his military-style suit – agreeing he looks ‘fabulous’.

The Ukrainian appeared dressed in a black jacket, shirt, and trousers as he tried to show Mr Trump respect whilst not breaking his pledge to forego a suit until the end of the war.

Mr Trump opened by saying it was ‘an honour’ to receive the Ukrainian President and that the two men have had ‘a lot of good talks’ making ‘substantial progress’.

Mr Zelensky responded in turn, saying thank you seven times in his opening speech after being dressed down by Vice President JD Vance for his supposed ingratitude at the last minute.

In a nice touch, he then handed Mr Trump a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for the First Lady Melania Trump to thank her for raising with Putin the plight of 20,000 Ukrainian children his forces have kidnapped.

As he passed it to Mr Trump, he joked: ‘It’s not to you – it’s to your wife.’ It drew a laugh as the US President said he’d ‘like to have it’ before respectfully putting it down beside him.

In another moment of levity, Brian Glenn, the journalist who grilled Mr Zelensky for not wearing a suit at the last meeting, told the Ukrainian: ‘President Zelensky, you look fabulous in that suit.’

As the room laughed, Mr Trump chimed in: ‘I said the same thing,’ adding: ‘That’s the one that attacked you last time.’

Mr Zelensky said: ‘I remember,’ before addressing Mr Glenn directly and joking: ‘You are in the same suit. I changed my suit.’

But on hammering out a peace deal, Mr Trump admitted it’s ‘a tough one’ saying while he has ended six wars he ‘thought this maybe would be the easiest one… and it’s not the easiest one.’

In a key moment, Mr Zelensky responded to a provocative first question from an American journalist over whether he is prepared ‘to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths’ by saying he is ready to sit down with Putin.

Thanking the reporter for his question, he referred to the overnight drone attacks that killed a baby in Kharkiv and said: ‘We need to stop this war, to stop Russia…

‘We will do our best for this and I think we show that we are strong people.

‘We support the idea of the United States, of personally President Trump, to stop this war, to make a diplomatic way of finishing this war. And we are ready for a trilateral, as the president said.

‘This is a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.’

 At the end of the press conference, Mr Trump revealed he was going to call the Russian dictator straight after today’s meeting.

‘I just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we’re going to have a phone call right after these meetings today, and we may or may not have a trilat.

‘If we don’t have a trilat, then the fighting continues, and if we do, we have a good chance.

‘I think if we have a trilat, there’s a good chance of maybe ending it. But he’s expecting my call when we’re finished with this meeting.’

In worrying signs for Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the meeting, Donald Trump, clearly bruised by the criticism he has received over his handling of Vladimir Putin in Alaska, was in a combative mood.

Just over an hour before meeting, he took to Truth Social to attack his ‘lightweight and very jealous critics’ and vowed: ‘I’ll get it done – I always do!!!’

Earlier, he set the tone ahead of the extraordinary and unprecedented meeting in Washington, writing: ‘A big day at the White House.’

The US President appeared to be lapping up the spectacle as Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of Europe’s Big Four leaders jetted to Washington alongside Nato and EU chiefs to bolster President Zelensky.

Ramping up the drama as Russia continued to rain bombs down on Ukraine today, Trump said: ‘We have never had so many European Leaders here at one time.

‘A great honour for America!!! Let’s see what the results will be???’

Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke said it was ‘astonishing’ to see the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy descend on the White House.

‘I can’t think of a precedent for this, the diplomatic weight which the Europeans are trying to apply to thinking in Washington,’ he told Sky News.

The European leaders have been helping to brief Mr Zelensky to try to avert a repeat of his last visit to the Oval Office where Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance humiliated him in February.

Mr Zelensky was resolute about his country’s position as he arrived in Washington, writing on X: ‘The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: “Stop.”‘

Responding to devastating missile strikes on his country overnight, he said: ‘The Russian war machine continues to destroy lives despite everything.

‘Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts.

‘That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings.’

But thousands of miles away from the death and destruction in Ukraine, the focus in Washington was once more on the trivialities that tripped up Mr Zelensky in February.

The row over his suit reared its head once more with the White House reportedly asking if he was planning on wearing one this time.

Mr Zelensky has famously vowed not to wear one until the end of the war, and last time channelled Winston Churchill, who didn’t wear one either when he visited the Oval Office during the Second World War.

But this was lost on the Trump administration, with a journalist friendly to the US president ambushing Zelensky in over his sartorial choice which preceded the White House meltdown.

There are growing fears of a cataclysmic breakdown of the trans-Atlantic alliance after Putin apparently succeeded in winning over Washington to his worldview in Alaska last Friday.

He appeared to get everything he wanted at the summit in Anchorage, with the Trump administration dropping its desire for an immediate ceasefire to halt the Russian advance and reportedly agreeing that Ukraine should cede all of the Donbas – a huge territory Moscow has failed to take for 12 years.

Far from halting hostilities, Russia fired four more missiles and 140 drones against six regions of Ukraine overnight, killing ten people including a one-year-old girl, which Mr Zelensky said was ‘demonstrative and cynical’.

Today, Europe is pushing to regain the initiative, get a ceasefire back on the table, move talks on territory to the current front lines, and get Washington to ramp up pressure on Moscow to comply with sanction threats.

But Mr Trump did little to encourage them as he instead heaped more pressure on Zelensky ahead of the White House showdown last night.

‘President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

‘Remember how it started,’ he added, referring to how Putin was able to take all of Crimea on Barack Obama’s watch in 2014 with very little consequences.

He said: ‘No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!’

Mr Zelensky responded with his own post on X, arguing that the unjust conclusion to Moscow’s initial attack gave him confidence to go again with his full-scale invasion in 2022.

‘We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting,’ he wrote. ‘Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our east, part of Donbas, and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.’

Also, apparently questioning the security guarantees Washington says it has won from Putin, he said Ukraine was given a similar promise to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994, which ‘didn’t work’.

But, eager not to repeat his last Oval Office meeting when the Vice President JD Vance accused him of not thanking the US president for America’s financial and military help, Mr Zelensky added: ‘I am grateful to the president of the United States for the invitation. We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably.’

He asked his European allies to join him at this crucial juncture for the history of the continent, and they descended on the White House at 5pm UK time.

Sir Keir Starmer joined French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian PM Georgia Meloni, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Speaking to press on board his flight ahead of the meeting, Sir Keir insisted that ‘we’ve got to get this right’.

He said: ‘This war in Ukraine has been going on for a really long time now, three-plus years.

‘It’s hugely impacted the Ukrainians who’ve suffered hugely but it’s also affected Europe – it’s impacted every single family and community in the United Kingdom.

‘And so everybody wants it to end, not least the Ukrainians, but we’ve got to get it right. We’ve got to make sure there is peace, that it is lasting peace, that it is fair and that it is just.’

Referring to the overnight attacks, Sir Keir’s spokesperson said Putin’s ‘barbaric attacks’ show ‘why we have always said there is one person who is able to end this war at any moment’.

They said: ‘President Putin has the choice to roll back his tanks and stop the bloodshed. President Putin has never been serious about peace.’

But this morning, health minister Stephen Kinnock said the UK would recognise parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia officially becoming part of Putin’s country, if Ukraine agreed to it.

He added that ‘any decisions taken about Ukrainian territory must be taken with the agreement of the Ukrainian government and President Zelensky’.

Sir Keir has also said he stands ready to put British ‘boots on the ground’ if there is a deal with Russia ‘to secure safe skies, safe seas and regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces’.

Downing Street also said Russia could not have the ‘veto’ over Ukraine joining Nato and there could be no ‘limitations’.

‘Our position on Ukraine and Nato hasn’t changed. Ukraine is on an irreversible path. Russia cannot have a veto over Ukraine’s path to Nato,’ they said.

If today goes as Mr Trump hopes, he will push for a summit with himself, Putin and Mr Zelensky in Europe later this week. While Mr Trump favours Rome, Moscow reportedly prefers Geneva.