US President Donald Trump voiced support for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia on Monday, as he gave President Volodymyr Zelensky a friendly welcome for high-stakes talks at the White House.

The two leaders also expressed hope that the critical meeting in Washington, DC, which included European leaders, could lead to three-party talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the three-and-a-half-year war.

And Trump said that the US would help Europe provide security for Ukraine as part of any deal to halt the fighting.

Trump stopped short of committing US troops to the effort, saying instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence. He added that details would be hashed out in the men’s afternoon meeting with EU leaders.

“They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump said. “I think its very important to get the deal done.”

Monday’s gathering had a strikingly different feel from the last Trump-Zelensky Oval Office meeting in February. That was a disastrous moment that led to Trump abruptly ending talks with the Ukrainian delegation after he and Vice President JD Vance complained that Zelensky had shown insufficient gratitude for US military assistance.

The hastily assembled meeting came after Trump met with Putin in Alaska on Friday. He said that the onus is now on Zelensky to agree to concessions of land that he said could end the war.

“If everything works out today, we’ll have a trilat,” Trump said, referring to possible three-way talks among Zelensky, Putin, and Trump. “We’re going to work with Russia, we’re going to work with Ukraine.”

Trump also said he plans to talk to Putin after his meetings with Zelensky and European leaders. He said he expected Putin to release over 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners soon after the trilateral meeting.

“I think you’ll see that President Putin really would like to do something also,” Trump said at the start of the meeting.

Zelensky expressed openness to trilateral talks. “We are ready for trilateral, as [the] president said,” Zelensky said.

He also praised Trump: “Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts........

© The Times of Israel