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What We Know with Max Foster
Trump Hosting Zelenskyy, European Leaders At White House. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired August 18, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:00]
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The first one is security guarantees, and we are very happy, Mr. President, that all the leaders are
here and security in Ukraine depends on the United States, and on you, and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts. They have been on online
before yesterday and et cetera.
So, a lot of countries on the side of Ukraine, our people, and all of us want to finish this war, stop Russia, and stop this war. We spoke about it,
and we will speak more about security guarantees.
This is very important that the United States gives such strong signal and is ready for security guarantees.
The second point, or maybe the first, humanitarian direction, very important to exchange all the prisoners. And I think that president will
help. And I was very thankful to your wife again, Mr. President, for the letter about our abducted children. And I hope that really it can be
historic role for the people to bring kids back to the families and be happy.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Get the people back, yeah.
ZELENSYY: Yes. This is so, so important. And I'm happy that we discussed it. This track with the President Trump. And I hope that we will find
decisions.
And, then what is very important that all the sensitive things, territorial, et cetera., we will discuss on the level of leaders during
trilateral meeting and President Trump will try to organize such meeting. And he said that he will come or not come. Ukraine will be happy if you --
if you --
TRUMP: If you both want me there, I will be there.
ZELENSKYY: Thank you. And I think this is very important. Yes. So security guarantees, bringing kids back and all our people, not only warriors, first
of all, warriors and all the civilians, journalists, a lot of people in prison. So, we need them back.
And guarantees, which will work for the years, we spoke about it and I showed to president a lot of details on the battlefield, on the map. Thank
you so much. Thank you for the map, by the way.
TRUM: Good map.
ZELENSKYY: It was great. Yeah.
I'm thinking how to take it back.
TRUMP: We'll get you.
ZELENSKYY: No, no, I think that we had constructive specific meeting. And I'm very thankful to all the, all the leaders who are here. And you help a
lot. And so we are happy that we have such big unity today. Thank you, Mr. President, for hosting. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I think you'll see that President Putin really would like to do something also. I think when we set
that up, when we do -- I think it's going to be when, not if.
I think you're going to see some very really positive moves. I know there's over 1,000 prisoners, and I know they're going to release them. Maybe
they're going to release them very soon, like immediately, which I think is great.
But we will -- we're going to set that up today after this, after this meeting. So very good and great remarks. I appreciate it.
Mark, as head of NATO, maybe you could say a few words, please.
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Yes, I will be very brief. I really want to thank you. President of the United States, dear Donald, for the
fact that you, as I said before, broke the deadlock, basically with President Putin by starting that dialogue. And I think it was in February
that you had the first phone call.
TRUMP: Right.
RUTTE: And from there, we are now where we are today. And that is I think if we play this well, we could end this, and we have to end this. We have
to stop the killing. We have to stop the destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure. It is a terrible war.
So I'm really excited. And let's make the best out of today and make sure that from today onwards, we get this thing to an end as soon as possible. I
really want to thank you for your leadership what you are doing for me. But of course, also all the European colleagues, it is really crucial.
And the fact that you have said I'm willing to participate in the security guarantees is, is a -- is a big step. It's really a breakthrough. And it
makes all the difference. So also thank you for that.
TRUMP: Well, NATO also has agreed from 2 percent to 5 percent, which is something that is a massive amount of money. And it's 2 percent that wasn't
always paid to 5 percent that is paid. That's a big difference.
And so, we appreciate that. That's a great move. Thank you very much.
Ursula, maybe on behalf of the commission, you could say a couple of words.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a very important moment.
Indeed, we are here Europeans as friends and allies. We had a fantastic NATO summit. Together as the two largest and biggest economies in the
world. We had the largest trade deal ever --
TRUMP: That's right.
VON DER LEYEN: -- agreed. And now we are here to work together with you on a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. Stop the killing. This is really our
common interest. Stop the killing. And indeed, it's very good to hear that we're working on the security guarantees, Article 5-like security
guarantees. So important.
But I want to thank you also that you mentioned the thousands of Ukrainian children that have been abducted.
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And as a mother and grandmother, every single child has to go back to its family. This should be one of our main priorities also in these
negotiations, to make sure that the children come back to Ukraine, to their families.
TRUMP: Thank you. And we did. I was just thinking, were here for a different reason, but we just a couple of weeks ago made the largest trade
deal in history. So that's a big -- that's a big thing. And congratulations. That's great.
Thank you very much, Ursula.
Mr. Chancellor from Germany, very, very, very great leader. Please?
FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Mr. President, many thanks for having us today.
I think this is extremely helpful that we are meeting and hearing that the two of you are having such a good meeting today here in Washington. The
next steps ahead are the more complicated ones. Now, the path is open. You opened it last Friday, but now the way is open for complicated
negotiations.
And to be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire. The latest from the next meeting on. I can't imagine that the next meeting would took place
without a ceasefire. So let's work on that and let's try to put pressure on Russia, because the credibility of these efforts, these efforts, we are
undertaking today are depending on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations, from next step on.
So, I would like to emphasize this aspect and would like to see a ceasefire from the next, meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting wherever it
takes place.
TRUMP: Well, we're going to let the president go over and talk to the president, and well see how that works out. And if we can do that, I will
say, and again, I say it in the six wars that I've settled, I haven't had a ceasefire. We just got into negotiations and they one of the wars was, as
you know, in the Congo was 30 years, 31 years long.
Another one that we settled last week with two great countries was 35 years going on, and we had no ceasefire. So, if we can do the ceasefire, great.
And if we don't do a ceasefire because many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us. Great points.
Please, Georgia, go ahead.
GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much, Donald, Mr. President, for hosting us today in this important meeting.
And I think it is an important day, a new phase after three years, enough that we didn't see any kind of sign from the Russian side that there was a
willing for dialogue. So something is changing. Something has changed thanks to you. Thanks also to the stalling (ph) in the battlefield, which
was achieved with the bravery of Ukraine, of Ukrainians and with the unity that we all provided to Ukraine.
And the reason why I mention it is that we also have to remind that if we want to reach peace and if we want to, to guarantee justice, we have to do
it united. So that's why its a very good day. The one we are -- we are in. You can obviously count on Italy as it was from the beginning. We are on
the side of Ukraine, and we do absolutely support your efforts towards peace.
We will talk about many important topics. The first one is security guarantees, how to be sure that it won't happen again, which is the
precondition of every kind of peace. I'm happy that we will discuss about that. I'm happy that we will begin from a proposal, which is the, let's
say, Article 5 model, which was Italian at the beginning. So, we are always ready to bring our proposals for peace, for dialogue. Its something we have
to build together to guarantee peace and to defend the security of our nation.
So thank you, Mr. President, for hosting us.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
Emmanuel?
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this meeting and for your commitment. And everything was said. But I have
to -- I just have to say here, everybody around this table is in favor of peace and we work very hard. And we've worked very hard during the past few
years to have a peace, which is a robust and longstanding peace.
This is why the idea of a trilateral meeting is very important, because this is the only way to fix it. And by the way, I think as a follow up, we
would need probably a quadrilateral meeting because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the security of the European continent.
And this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this, on this matter.
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In order to organize such a trilateral meeting, your idea to ask for a truce or a ceasefire, at least to stop the killings, as we discussed is a
necessity and we all support this idea. And in order to have such a long- standing peace for Ukraine and for the whole continent, we do need the security guarantees.
And the first one is clearly a credible Ukrainian army for the years and decades to come. And the second one is our own commitment, all of us. And
we worked very hard during the past few months amongst the Coalition of the Willing, with the support of NATO, to build the different pillars of
security guarantees and our commitments. And you can be sure that Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in this
security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation.
So, you can count on us as we can count on you in order to deliver this robust peace for both Ukraine and Europe.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Emmanuel.
Mr. Prime Minister?
KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Mr. President. And thank you for hosting us here.
Can I start where Emmanuel started, which is we all want peace. The war in Ukraine has had a huge impact, particularly on the Ukrainians who've borne
the brunt of it. But its also had an impact on Europe and on the United Kingdom. There's not a family or community that hasn't been affected.
And when we talk about security, were talking about the security, not just of Ukraine. We're talking about the security of Europe and the United
Kingdom as well, which is why this is such an important issue.
I think this is such an important meeting as a group. I think we've had a discussion on the phone a number of times, Mr. President, but be able now
to be around the table to take it forward. And I really feel that we can I think with the right approach this afternoon, make real progress,
particularly on the security guarantees and your indication of security guarantees of some sort of Article 5 style guarantees fits with what we've
been doing with the coalition of the willing, which we started some months ago, bringing countries together and showing that we were prepared to step
up to the plate when it came to security.
With you coming alongside the U.S., alongside what we've already developed, I think we could take a really important step forward today, a historic
step actually could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe.
I also feel that we can make real progress towards a just and lasting outcome. Obviously, that has to involve Ukraine and a trilateral meeting
seems the sensible next step. So thank you for being prepared to take that forward, because I think if we can ensure that that is the progress out of
this meeting, both security guarantees and some sort of progress on trilateral meeting of some sort to bring some of the difficult issues to a
head, then I think today will be seen as a very important day in recent years in relation to conflict, which has gone on for three and a bit years.
And so far, nobody -- nobody's been able to bring it to this point. So, I thank you for that.
TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And, you know, it's very interesting because this is the first for the White House. You can't say that very
often. It's seen a lot over the years, over the since 1800s, 1799 to be almost exact.
But this is the first where we've had so many prime ministers, presidents, the heads of European nations.
And by the way, Alex, I'd like you to say a couple of words, too. You're a young, powerful man. Before I finish up, I want you to say a couple of
words. Go ahead.
ALEXANDER STUBB, FINNISH PRESIDENT: I'll take the notion of youth back to my wife and try to convince her. Yeah. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
I think in the past two weeks, we've probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years. And I think the
fact that we're around this table today is, is very much symbolic in the sense that it's team Europe and team United States helping Ukraine and the
progress that we are looking out of this meeting is about the security guarantees, which are a big part of this.
And then, of course, moving towards a process with the trilateral meeting with you and President Putin and President Zelenskyy, some of the
international media might wonder, you know, why is the president of Finland here? I think the reason is probably that we might come from a small
country, but we have a long border with Russia, over 800 miles. And we, of course, have our own historical experience with Russia from World War II,
the Winter War and the War of Continuation.
And if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944.
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And I'm sure that we'll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia's war of aggression and find and get a lasting and just peace. The situation
is very difficult, but that's why we're here.
TRUMP: Thank you, Alex, very much. Good job.
So we're going to be meeting for a while and we're going to discuss some of the issues. And I don't think there's any issue that's overly complex. It's
at a point now where people want to do things.
I do -- I really do believe -- I've known him for a long time. I've always had a great relationship with him. I think President Putin wants to find an
answer to, and we'll see. And in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we're going to know whether or not were
going to solve this or is this horrible fighting.
And to continue, we'll do the best to get it ended, and I believe you have two willing parties, and usually that's good news. But two willing parties
that want to make a deal and we'll journey together, and we'll go over, and we'll see if it can be done.
And it's possible it might not be able to be done. On the other hand, it's possible it will. And we're going to save thousands and thousands of lives
a week. And so, it's something we really have to do. And -- or at least we have to give it our best. It's all you can do. You can give it your best.
But I think we may have a very good outcome.
So, I want to thank you all. And the media, I want to thank you. We're going to be staying here for a little while. Then, we're going to walk over
to the Oval Office, and were going to have another little discussion, about similar matters. And then they're going to go home to their great countries
and report.
And I'm going to remain here and work, and you're going to go and work. We're all going to be working when we may be in a different location, but
that's what we know how to do is work.
But I want to thank -- the media has been actually very fair, generally speaking, very fair. I think it's important that they're fair because this
is a -- this is a very important -- this is a very important subject. We have to get it ended. And so that's all we ask for is fairness with the
media.
Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello. I'm Max Foster.
This is WHAT WE KNOW.
And beginning with that breaking news. An extraordinary meeting, European leaders meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump right now at the White
House in that push to end the war in Ukraine.
Clare Sebastian is in London. But first we go to Kevin Liptak at the White House.
I mean, it was an extraordinary moment. And President Trump comparing it to World War Two. And it did have a sense of that, didn't it? A war in Europe
being negotiated there around the table, led by the U.S. president.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And certainly sort of the image of all of these leaders making haste to come here to the White
House to try and confer about a way to end this war, is not something I've ever seen while I've been covering this building. And it does give you a
sense of the urgency that these leaders feel, not only in bringing this war to an end, but also ensuring that they're not sidelined in how all of that
happens.
And so, you do see the president and these leaders. We're working very hard to try and ensure that there isn't a great deal of daylight between
themselves as they talk about these critical issues. These have been, for the most part, very cordial meetings that the president has been holding,
first in the Oval Office with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but then also just now upstairs on the state floor of the White House with these other European
leaders.
And you heard the president kind of tick through what the agenda for this part of the summit would be, starting with this idea of security
guarantees. You know, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as he's considering what he will have to agree to in order for this war to end, wants to know more about
what those guarantees will look like. And the president says, essentially that they will be discussing who will do what. That's a quote from the
president.
We heard him earlier in the Oval Office, not rule out the idea that American troops could be on the ground in Ukraine. That is something of a
shift in position for him. And so, I think sort of divvying up what the responsibilities in that will be very important.
And then you heard him talk about this idea of land concessions and saying that they would have to take into consideration, quote, the current line of
contact. And it was interesting when Zelenskyy was speaking, he thanked President Trump for a map, which I think gives you an idea of just how
critical, you know, even some of these most minute places on a map will be to these discussions today as they work out. You know, what Zelenskyy can
agree to and what Putin has proposed in trying to kind of come up with a way for all of them to get on the same page.
And then the president is also discussing this idea of a trilateral meeting, which is one of his ultimate objectives in this, to try and get
Zelenskyy and Putin into the same room, to try and talk about an end to this war. He says he's going to call up Putin on the telephone as soon as
todays meetings wrap up and try and get an agreement for one of those trilateral meetings.
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We should say the holdup in that has not necessarily been Zelenskyy. It's been with Putin, who has so far refused any kind of sit down with the
Ukrainian president. But president Trump at least says that this is a when, not if kind of deal. He seems very optimistic that that could happen.
Now I think that there were a few moments where you did see glimmers of difference. For example, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, says that
it's important to have an immediate ceasefire in place before that trilateral meeting occurs. President Trump says that that' just not
happening at the moment.
And then the French President Emmanuel Macron, says that he thinks that this meeting should be a quadrilateral meeting, that there needs to be
Europe represented at the table, because in part, this is a European issue, and that the Europeans will have to be at the forefront of these security
guarantees going forward.
So, for all of the sort of conviviality and attempts at unity today, you do see some cracks emerging, even as all sides try to put forward a united
front.
FOSTER: Kevin, thank you.
Clare, I mean, Kevin, really, they're going through the different things that the European leaders said. But what was interesting was that it felt
coordinated, didn't it? They each took a different angle, you know, should there be a trilateral, should there be security guarantees? And I thought
it was interesting when you heard the Finnish president talk about team Europe, and it really was on display.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And I think, Max, that's part of the point of what they're doing here, this summit, the scale of it, the
speed of it, they've really reset the timeline for how quickly you can organize a multilateral summit on this scale is really designed, I think,
to offset the grandeur and the optics that we saw at the Alaska summit last week and really project strength and unity. And sort of support for
Ukraine.
President Macron saying ahead of this summit, you know, if we look weak, essentially were setting up future conflict in Europe. And I think, look,
there has to be some realism, though, because, look, yes, it was very cordial. The Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy seemed to go sort of worlds
better than what we saw in February. And we had a level of optimism coming out of this encounter with the European leaders.
But I think the reality of it is that they're going to be faced with a very intransigent Russia, emboldened by what we saw last week in Alaska.
President Trump is confident, he said, that he can get Putin to the table with Zelenskyy. But the Russian president has questioned Zelenskyy's
legitimacy at every turn. I was reading the Russian media this morning. They have a new way of describing Zelenskyy, which seems to be growing in
popularity in the state media and among the influential military bloggers, essentially referring to him as expired, a reference to the fact that
Russia constantly criticizes the sort of postponement of elections in Ukraine because they cannot hold elections during martial law.
On the issue of security guarantees, the U.S. has said that Russia has signed off on the idea of U.S. involvement in security guarantees. But we
heard from the Russian foreign ministry today threatening, unpredictable -- unpredictable consequences, if any, as they call it NATO contingents end up
on Ukrainian soil. They have said in the past that they will consider it a NATO contingent, even if it's not under the banner of NATO. But if it comes
from a country that belongs to NATO.
And I think you noted the Finnish president, I thought it was interesting that he said, you know, international media might be wondering why the
Finnish president is here. The head of a small country, but they are the NATO member that shares the longest land border with Russia, over 800
miles. And I spoke to President Stubb myself at the NATO summit back in June. And he, along with several other countries that neighbor Russia, said
that they expect in the event of some kind of peace settlement for Russian troops to amass at their borders.
So, all of this is critical for them, not only for showing support for Ukraine, but for their own security going forward, essential to try to come
up with some kind of mechanism to stop Putin from trying to launch any further aggression in Europe.
FOSTER: Okay, Clare, thank you so much. Also to Kevin at the White House.
That meeting comes on the heels of earlier talks between President Trump and Zelenskyy.
Pressed by a reporter about potential security guarantees for Kyiv, Mr. Trump didn't rule out the possibility of sending American troops to
Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help. It's going to be good. They are first line of defense because they're there.
They're Europe. But we're going to help them out also. We'll be involved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Mr. Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs everything and that includes American troops, intelligence and equipment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENSKYY: We live under each day attacks. You know, that there have been a lot of attacks and a lot of wounded people. And the child was dead, small
one, one year and a half.
So, we need to stop this war to stop Russia. And we need support. American and European partners. We will do our best for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: A busy couple of hours.
My next guest, Rose Gottemoeller, has been watching it with us, the former deputy secretary general of NATO.
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Thank you so much for joining us.
I mean, a huge amount of compliments for the president there. We know that he likes that sort of gratification, doesn't he? And I think all the
leaders were very much speaking to that.
But in terms of substance, are you looking at these security guarantees that Donald Trump was inferring as the big move here?
ROSE GOTTEMOELLER, FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL, NATO: I absolutely think the security guarantees are the crux of the matter, both for the
resolution of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, but also to reassure NATO allies. You may recollect that the Trump administration, at
the very outset basically said, well, we're heading off to Asia to confront China. You're going to be on your own.
And so, the NATO allies have been quite uncertain about how much support the United States would continue to maintain in Europe. Things like that.
Intelligence support, overhead satellite support, the ability to reinforce should they face an attack from Russia. And it seems very clear now that
the United States, with the Trump administration in the lead, is planning now to stay in Europe and stay committed to European security, as well as
guaranteeing the security of Ukraine.
So, this is a very important set of developments, not only for Ukraine, but also for the European allies.
FOSTER: Is this the compromise that everyone's been looking for, that Putin won't allow Ukraine to join NATO? A red line for him. Europeans saying he
shouldn't be able to block it. Perhaps the common ground here is that there are some NATO like security guarantees that can be given to Ukraine
unilaterally.
GOTTEMOELLER: Absolutely. It's going to be a matter for faith savers all around at this point. And for Mr. Putin, an important face-saver will be
that for the time being, this matter of NATO membership will be set aside. And that seems to be something that the Ukrainians are willing to do, as
long as its not off the table, I think forever.
So, the notion that there can now be security guarantees that allow for the NATO allies to continue to support Ukraine militarily, training, providing
equipment, military support of all kinds, including possibly boots on the ground, I think that this will be a big change from where we were just a
few weeks ago.
FOSTER: Yeah.
GOTTEMOELLER: And honestly, if Putin can swallow this quietly, then it will be, I think, a big building block for a stable and fair peace settlement
for Ukraine.
FOSTER: Yeah. I mean, it would be genuine progress, wouldn't it? Despite what everyone was saying about the meeting last week.
The French president very clear that a truce is essential. That isn't currently on the agenda for the U.S. president, is it? He. He's not talking
about a ceasefire, saying that other deals he's reached haven't involved ceasefires, which isn't entirely true, because Pakistan and India were a
ceasefire, according to him.
But Europe very clear that they need a ceasefire before the negotiations. So where's the common ground going to be there?
GOTTEMOELLER: You know, I see this as a little bit too much of a stumbling block at this point. And of course, we did give up on that condition of a
ceasefire first. But we are continuing to talk and make progress, and there's some momentum building up, of course, for peace to take hold in
Ukraine. There will have to be a ceasefire. That means a ceasefire on the ground at the battlelines, but also the air assaults that have been going
on will have to stop.
So, there's no question that a ceasefire will be part of the -- of the deal overall. But if it turns into a stumbling block for further progress,
particularly on this matter of security guarantees, I think it's fine to set it aside for the moment and get the security guarantees nailed down
with as much specificity as possible.
FOSTER: In terms of what happens next, Prime Minister Starmer saying a trilateral would be the logical next move. Presumably, Zelenskyy would be
up for that. Trump seems to be up for it as well. The problem is going to be Putin.
What is the problem there? Is it because he doesn't want to give Zelenskyy that sort of credibility?
GOTTEMOELLER: Well, that's been his argument in the past. And I note your correspondent raised that point that the Russians are saying he's an
illegitimate president now because no election has been held. So that will be an issue for Putin.
The trouble is, he always likes to appear on the front foot and in control of the negotiations. And if suddenly, he is seen to be the one who's
standing in the way of progress and stopping the momentum and halting the momentum just because he won't meet with President Zelenskyy, that will put
him on the back foot. And he really hates that.
So, I know there will be a good deal of, thinking through things in the kremlin today after this really wonderful show of unity in Washington among
the European allies, Ukraine and the United States.
FOSTER: Okay, Rose Gottemoeller, I really appreciate you coming on to us with your snap analysis. Brilliant as ever.
Let's also bring in Ivanna Klympush since a Ukrainian perspective for us there. I mean, for you, it's very insulting, presumably watching Donald
Trump almost defend Putin's position in that meeting.
IVANNA KLYMPUSH, MEMBER, VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE: Good evening. Thank you for having for having me and giving the perspective also from Ukraine.
For us, it's a very important time and very important meeting. And obviously, we are watching it with caution and with some hope, but not
maybe too much expectations from Ukraine. It seems that its important and very, very critical that the security guarantees for Ukraine would be
decided and clearly specified. But at the same time, I think a lot of the very sensitive and very important issues are being, kind of pushed aside at
this particular moment.
And that is something the that actually Putin wants to achieve. And that has been supposedly the conversation between President Trump and Putin in
Alaska.
FOSTER: But the security guarantees are absolutely essential, aren't they? Because without them, Ukraine can't be protected. And that would be major
progression, wouldn't it? If Trump agrees to them and potentially even having U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, and if he can convince Putin
of that, that would be major progress.
KLYMPUSH: It would be. But again, we would have to understand what exactly Mr. Putin is, going to be pressured into. And I appreciate what Chancellor
Merz has said, that it's important to get to that peace. Peace through strength. As initially President Trump was referring to by pressuring the
Russian Federation. I think it is important also to understand what Russia is going to give upon this, give up upon this conversation, because I think
the all the discussions with regard to seizing of the Ukrainian and ceding Ukrainian lands are very, very worrisome. I don't see it really being
supported by the Ukrainian society, by the Ukrainian people.
And, by the, you know, by the very fact how, how it will impact not only Ukraine in the future, but also the security of Europe and other parts of
the world.
FOSTER: What do you think of this thing that Trump was talking about, saying he's going to call Putin after this big Europe meeting to discuss
it?
KLYMPUSH: Well, as far as I understand, it's just the matter of approach that President Trump has decided to take in this negotiations, pretending
that he would be the neutral negotiator and facilitator in this discussion. I think it's critical that right now, this conversation with European
leaders on the common action of supporting Ukraine is happening on the American soil, and that is something where I hope that American
administration will take the side of the good versus evil, and it will take the side of the law and rule of law, vis-a-vis the Russian federation that
has been, brutally, brutally, destroying all the remnants of the international law over the over its actions.
FOSTER: And the, you know, the war very much still underway, isn't it, on the ground.
Ivana, thank you so much for joining us. A member of Ukraine's parliament there.
KLYMPUSH: I won't celebrate it.
FOSTER: Yeah. People dying just overnight. Young children as well.
The meeting underway, then, between Donald Trump and the European leaders, also the leaders of NATO and the European commission, as well. It all
started with that one on one with Zelenskyy earlier, a day of historic proportions at the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:37:12]
FOSTER: It is a case of when, not if, President Donald Trump says he's expecting a trilateral meeting between him, the Ukrainian and Russian
presidents to take place. At this hour, Mr. Trump is meeting with European leaders at the White House to discuss how to end Russia's war on Ukraine.
It comes after a one-on-one meeting with Ukraine's Vladimir Zelenskyy, where Mr. Trump didn't rule out using U.S. troops to guarantee the
country's security. It's rare to see the White House play host to peace talks of this size and scale.
Ronald Reagan famously hosted the Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 to sign a nuclear treaty. Bill Clinton hosted various summits in
the mid `90s with Israeli, Palestinian and other Middle East leaders to try to reach a peace deal in the region. But this meeting includes nearly every
member of the G-7 and came together much more quickly.
Joining us, presidential historian Alexis Coe.
I mean, what did you think? Just looking at the images.
ALEXIS COE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It's incredible. The last time Washington saw such a concentration of world leaders was 1917, about a
month before Kennedy was born. Woodrow Wilson summoned. But usually, Europe is the national stage.
So, to see leaders gather in mass in D.C. instead of Brussels, Paris, London, it's historically rare. And it marks Washington as the locus of war
and peace decision making. But it's -- there's a historic inversion going on here that's fascinating to watch.
Washington is a pressure chamber. It's not a listening post.
FOSTER: Was he managing it? Well, do you think Donald Trump?
COE: I think it's interesting. You know, the last meeting, I think I think most people can agree did not go so well. It seems interesting. I think he
is in an unusual position for an American president and for himself, where he feels we have a head of state who came with a literal entourage of heads
of state. That's never happened before.
So I think that he is you know, there's -- there's a different standard for Donald Trump. There's a different precedent. I think so far, it's going
okay, but it's certainly too early to tell what's going on. This is different than Sunday, though, with his meeting with Putin, for sure.
FOSTER: Well, it's interesting seeing them all around the table because they were all being very deferential to the president. But if you look at
the context of what they were saying, they were all adding a different sort of angle, which they've obviously all agreed on. So, one was focusing on
the upcoming trilateral, another one was focusing on, you know, the security guarantees, another one focusing on a truce is interesting that
they've obviously coordinated what each of them would say, and actually overall had quite a powerful impact and sounded quite tough, even though
superficially it was very deferential.
[15:40:03]
COE: That's absolutely true. I think what's interesting is Washington has been a state of consensus, but not in this way, where the visitors have the
consensus. So, it's sort of a stage of contest when it comes to Trump.
We have consensus in the past. Kennedy with MacMillan, Reagan with Thatcher, Obama with Merkel. But here the gather -- the gathering, it
projects this this contest between Trump and the other world leaders, but they seem to all be aligned.
And so, we're talking about, a sort of shift in who's negotiating what and where it's happening. And I think what it demonstrates is an anxiety about
U.S. reliability under Trump.
FOSTER: It's been really interesting. And we'll see later on what comes out of the meeting. That's crucially, what matters here, doesn't it? Rather
than the optics of the pre-meeting.
Alexis, really appreciate you, coming in on that.
Well, President Trump said he expects the trilateral meeting to materialize between himself, Putin and Zelenskyy. He says he thinks it's a matter of
when, not if. We'll discuss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Returning to the high stakes summit unfolding at the White House as we speak this hour. U.S. President Trump, in a multilateral meeting with
European leaders, something we haven't seen in something like a century. This, after welcoming Ukraine's president Zelenskyy back to the Oval
Office. The stakes couldn't be higher for Ukraine's territory.
Mr. Trump has signaled Mr. Zelenskyy must agree to some of Russia's conditions, including that Ukraine cede Crimea and agreed to never join
NATO for the war to end. The U.S. president hasn't ruled out the possibility of sending U.S. troops to Ukraine as part of future security
guarantees.
[15:45:05]
President Trump is expressing optimism about a potential peace deal. The U.S. president says he'll call President Putin and try to arrange a
trilateral meeting. President Zelenskyy says he's open to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: 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 trial, there's a good chance it may be ending it, but he's expecting my
call when were finished with this meeting.
ZELENSKYY: And we're ready for trilateral as president said, this is a good signal about trilat. I think this is very good. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN contributor, former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty joins us now.
It was extraordinary, wasn't it, Jill, seeing that we were hearing from a historian earlier saying, never have we seen a gathering like this since
1917, and even Donald Trump was referring to world war two, placing it in this history. And, you know, a world leader being flanked by other world
leaders, it was all quite extraordinary.
Obviously, the only player there who wasn't, you know, the only player who wasn't there was President Putin. How would he have viewed this?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I don't think he knows exactly where this is going. This is -- I think what's fascinating about this, Max, is
that it's happening real time. And the negotiations, discussions that are going on right now with the Europeans are evolving.
In fact, on that point, which has been really, really crucial about security. And then the ceasefire versus go for a full peace agreement, that
to me at least judging by what we've heard, is not settled even among these allies.
If you listen to German Chancellor Merz, he seems to be indicating. In fact, he said, we want to see a ceasefire from the next meeting. And
President Trump has been saying, well, you know, maybe we can go to this next meeting. And I don't believe that a cease fire is as important, Mr.
Trump would say, as actually getting a peace agreement. So there is actually quite a division there.
And that's what is being discussed right now at the White House. But the other thing is you mentioned security, and I think the big headline from
that is definitely the American president saying that the United States, in some fashion, perhaps with troops, forces, help undefined at this point
would help the Europeans in providing these security guarantees. And those are crucial.
FOSTER: I mean, this suggestion that there could be U.S. troops on the ground, any troops on the ground in Ukraine from the west would be a
massive compromise, wouldn't it, for Putin. But that seems to be something that came out of the Putin Trump discussions.
DOUGHERTY: Except that, Max, I think we have to say, is it really troops on the ground fighting, or could it be, you know, trainers in some part of
Ukraine who don't do fighting, but they train? Could it be air support? Could it be intelligence?
There are a lot of different ways that the United States can help. And many of the things that the United States can do, the Europeans can't do or
can't do as well. So, I think we have to put a place mark there in terms of defining what does it actually mean? But the mere fact that the American
president opened up that possibility is quite extraordinary.
FOSTER: What about a trilateral then? Everyone seems up for it. But we haven't heard from Putin yet. He'll want to be in control of that, won't
he?
How might he exert that? Rather than just being seen as someone that's been forced to come along?
DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, interestingly, he set the scene actually back on Friday in Alaska when he did say cryptically, no details. But he did say,
you know, we believe that the security of Ukraine should be provided for. It was kind of iffy, but he definitely made a move that I think was really
notable at that point. He was opening the door to, agreeing with the, let's say, the United States and Europe to allow something to happen.
Now, again, the details we do not know what that something is, but I think he's -- he's, you know, opened the door to something, in Europe.
FOSTER: Okay. Jill Dougherty, thank you so much. Watching all that unfold. It's extraordinary.
Whilst Trump and Zelenskyy meet to find a resolution to the end of the Russia-Ukraine war in Kyiv, another soldier is killed. Is being less laid
to rest. What it all means to those losing loved ones every day in the fight for peace.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:38]
FOSTER: U.S. President Donald Trump is leaving the door open to use U.S. troops to guarantee Ukraine's security. At President Trump meeting with
European leaders at the White House this hour, Mr. Trump says ultimately, President Zelenskyy and Putin need to meet face to face to agree on a peace
deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out. Ultimately, this is a decision that can only be made by
President Zelenskyy and by the people of Ukraine working also together in an agreement with President Putin. And I just think that's -- very good
things are going to come of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, in Kyiv, residents spent another day remembering the soldiers who were dying for the cause.
CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has one soldier's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The young widow tries to keep a brave face at a funeral like so many funerals before.
Friends and loved ones come to mourn yet another life cut down in its prime.
David Chichkan, a popular Kyiv artist, joined the army last year. Earlier this month, he was killed by a Russian drone on the eastern front. His
mother gets one last look at her son.
Dmytro was in David's unit.
He always wanted Ukraine to have agency, he tells me. For it to be free, independent, for it to choose its own path, to decide where to go and what
to be.
This funeral comes on the day when Zelenskyy goes to the White House under pressure from Trump, who overnight posted on social media that the
Ukrainian leader can end the war almost immediately if he wants to.
It's just some kind of fatal coincidence, Oleksandra says, that today there is this great farewell and at the same time, our president is clearly being
pressured into something in Washington.
The very land David died defending may now be on the negotiating table, a cold reality not lost on filmmaker Sashko.
SASHKO, FILMMAKER: You can't trade, you know, lives of Ukrainian people, our lands and our values, just for the -- Donald Trump's desire to make
business as usual with the Russians.
[15:55:13]
WEDEMAN: For now, the business as usual is more death and destruction. Overnight, drone and missile strikes killed at least ten people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN (on camera): And so yet another funeral comes to an end. And despite all the diplomacy that is perhaps going on, there is no end in
sight to this war.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Kyiv.
FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: Closing bell ringing on Wall Street, "Taking Stock", which is a new show on cheddar network. That's Peter Tuchman, our
good friend who's on the balcony at --
END
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