Trump says he is working to arrange meeting between Putin and Zelensky; US-Russia-Ukraine trilateral to follow

Washington, Aug 19 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has said he has begun arranging a meeting between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. This would be followed by trilateral summit between the US, Russia and Ukraine.

Trump wrote on social media on Monday evening that he had discussed the matter with Putin during a phone call amid meetings with European leaders at the White House.

"At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky," he wrote.

"After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat (trilateral meeting), which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years."

Trump did not specify when either sit-down would occur.

He said his meetings on Monday centered around security guarantees for Ukraine, which "would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America".

"Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine," Trump wrote.

"We'll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we're going to know whether or not we're going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue," he said during the talks with Zelensky and European leaders.

Trump and Putin spoke after Trump paused his meeting with Zelensky and other European leaders on Monday, a source told CNN.

The source said the Europeans were not present for the conversation.

A European official told CNN that Trump paused the negotiations with the European leaders and Zelensky in order to call Putin.

The news was first reported by German newspaper Bild, who reported the talks with European leaders would continue after the call with Putin at the White House.

Trump assured that the US would be involved in Kyiv's "future security" as Russia continues its aggression against the war-torn nation.

"It's an honour to have the President of Ukraine with us. We have had a lot of good discussions, a lot of good talks. I think progress is being made, very substantial progress in many ways. We had a good meeting just a short while ago with the President of Russia. I think, there is a possibility that something could come out of it and today's meeting is very important. We have 7 very powerful leaders from Europe and are going to be meeting with them right after this meeting," Trump said.

Trump pressed for a lasting peace instead of a "two-year" one that would end up in "mess" again.

"We are going to work with Ukraine, we are going to work with everybody. We are going to make sure that if there is peace, peace is going to stay long term. This is very long-term. We are not talking about a two-year peace and then we end up in this mess again. We are going to make sure that everything is good. We have worked with Russia, we are going to work with Ukraine."

European leaders including UK PM Keir Starmer, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, among others, were also present at the White House.

The hastily assembled meet comes after last week's non-conclusive Alaska summit between Russian President Vladmir Putin and Trump.

--IANS

int/khz