| August 2025 White House multilateral meeting on Ukraine | |
|---|---|
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| Host country |  United States |
| Date | August 18, 2025 (2025-08-18) |
| City | Washington D.C. |
| Venue | White House |
| Participants | |
| Chair | Donald Trump |
| Key points | |
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On August 18, 2025, a hurried summit of eight European leaders convened at theWhite House[1][2] to discuss the aftermath of the2025 Russia–United States Summit in Alaska. Robust security guarantees forUkraine akin toArticle 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty were the primary topic on the agenda.[3][4][5]
Three days before, the Russia–United States Summit between US PresidentDonald Trump and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin took place.[6] The main topic of discussion was the ongoingRusso-Ukrainian War.[7][8]
Trump met with Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy before meeting other European leaders. At the press conference immediately preceding the Trump–Zelenskyy meeting, Zelenskyy personally handed over a letter from his wife,Olena Zelenska, to US first ladyMelania Trump, thanking her for efforts to secure the return ofUkrainian children held in Russia.[9]
Trump was asked about his earlier claim that Zelenskyy could end the war "immediately". Trump answered that he still believes this, and that there was a good chance of producing a settlement during a future three-way meeting with Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.[10] Zelenskyy said he also wanted such a meeting to take place.[11]
Trump said theUnited States would offer Ukraine strong security protection but left open whether it would be NATO-led or take another form of US involvement.[9]
Trump reiterated that he didn't think a ceasefire was necessary for a peace treaty.[5][4] This marked a notable shift from Trump's stance before his meeting with Putin the previous week. Before the Russia–United States Summit, he had said that he wanted a ceasefire "rapidly" and had threatened Russia with economic sanctions if one was not agreed on.[11]
Zelenskyy said Ukraine can purchase US weapons with support from European countries and other financing programs. He stressed that strengthening and rearming the country's armed forces is vital.[11]
Trump blamed his predecessor, former US PresidentJoe Biden, for failing to preventRussia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine,[11][12] and continued to falsely claimthat the 2020 election was "stolen" from him; he also spoke about extemporaneouslymail-in voting,transgender athletes, andcrime in Washington, D.C.[12]
The summit took place on short notice.[13][14] According to theBBC, it was "unprecedented in modern times for so many world leaders to be [at the White House] at once."[15] Several leaders, including Italian Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni and European Commission PresidentUrsula von der Leyen, proposed security guarantees for Ukraine along the lines ofNATO's collective-defense clause, under which an attack on one is treated as an attack on all.[16]
Trump at one point paused the meeting to brief Russian PresidentVladimir Putin for forty minutes over his Oval Office phone.[17] The other participants took their intermission in theRoosevelt Room.[18][non-primary source needed]
After the meeting, PresidentEmmanuel Macron of France stressed that security guarantees involved the security of "the whole of the European continent". German ChancellorFriedrich Merz remarked to the press that "The Russian demand thatKyiv give up the free parts ofDonbass corresponds, to put it bluntly, to a proposal for the United States to have to give upFlorida."[3]
Former NATO Deputy Secretary GeneralRose Gottemoeller emphasized that Trump's acknowledgment of security guarantees for Ukraine, and US participation in such, was of enormous importance.[19]Harlan Ullman of theAtlantic Council feared that "security guarantees are going to be very, very difficult".[5]Anatol Lieven, an analyst at theQuincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted that Russia has from the start been in favor of a peace agreement without a prior ceasefire, as a ceasefire would give away its only leverage.[5] Liza Fokht from theBBC also opined that a ceasefire would be disadvantageous for Russia.[11] According toAl Jazeera, "With [Putin's] forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement."[20]
John Foreman, a former British military attaché in Moscow, laid out Putin's maximalist demands: "Russia might accept a US security guarantee for Ukraine in return for formal recognition of the occupied territories, effectively partitioning Ukraine for the long term, and no NATO (troops) in Ukraine and no Ukraine in NATO ... Whatever happens, theCoalition of the Willing is no substitute for US power." Former British Defence SecretaryBen Wallace stated that "The reality that everyone seems to want to avoid admitting or doing anything about is that Putin shows no sign of wanting to stop the killing".[21]
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior analyst at theCarnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that security guarantees come in all shapes and sizes, "But let's be clear: there's not going to be a US or European commitment to go to war with Russia if it reinvades Ukraine.[22]
In regard to possibleland swaps discussed by Trump, Zelenskyy had pointed out over the weekend that theConstitution of Ukraine forbids such; a nationalreferendum would be required to amend it.[23][24]
More broadly,Gérard Araud, theFrench Ambassador to the United States during Trump's first term, equated both summits in terms of substance: "In Anchorage and in Washington, it was a triumph of empty vagueness and meaningless commitments ... In both cases, no firm decision has been taken. Nothing has changed."[25] In the same vein theeditorial board ofThe Wall Street Journal stated, four days after the summit, that "All the happy smiles of diplomacy won't make a difference unless Mr. Putin thinks that the cost to him of continuing the war is higher than the risk of ending it."[26]
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Media related toMeeting of the President of Ukraine and the President of the United States, 18 August 2025 at Wikimedia CommonsSecond presidency of Donald Trump (2025–present) | |||||||||||||||
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