President Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday as the search for an end to the three-and-a-half-year war intensifies.

Major European leaders also jetted in for the meeting. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were all in attendance. So too were European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

In a relief for all concerned, the meeting was vastly different from the late February contretemps in the Oval Office, in which Trump and Vice President Vance berated Zelensky at length.

Here are the other main takeaways.

A positive tone but few specifics

The mood music was positive on Monday, but huge hurdles remain on the road to peace.

Trump was civil and solicitous toward Zelensky throughout the day, and he was also conspicuously affable to the European leaders, with whom he has had volatile relations.

Trump argued that “while difficult, peace is within reach.” He also held out the promise of an imminent trilateral meeting between Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin and himself at which the knottiest issues of the conflict could be unpicked.

Zelensky, for his part, enthused about his “really good” conversation with Trump — a far cry from February’s debacle.

NATO’s Rutte said he was “really excited” about the prospects for peace, while Starmer asserted there was a chance of “real progress toward a just and lasting........

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