GLOBAL LEADERS sprang into action Tuesday seeking to capitalize on the good vibes coming out of President Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to work toward bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed — I want to try to get to heaven if possible,” Trump said in a Tuesday interview on Fox News. “I hear I’m not doing too well, I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole … but if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin directly after the summit at the White House to discuss a face-to-face with Zelensky. The White House said Putin agreed to meet Zelensky, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday a potential summit would have to be prepared “step by step, gradually, starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who attended the Washington summit, said Putin and Zelensky could have a bilateral meeting within two weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron, another summit attendee, pitched Switzerland for the potential Putin-Zelensky meeting spot.
Trump said if Putin and Zelensky meet, he'd then participate in a trilateral meeting sometime after that with the aim of ending the war entirely. Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.
“[T]he optimism of your president is to be taken seriously,” Macron told NBC News. “So if he considers he can get a deal done, this is great news, and we have to do whatever we can to have a great deal.”
Trump was caught on a hot mic Monday telling Macron that Putin “wants to make a deal for me” after the two met privately in Alaska last week.
Still, Russia launched a major attack overnight on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
And agreements need to be reached about land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Zelensky said he believes a security guarantee could be ironed out in the next 10 days.
Trump has said the U.S. will participate in Ukraine’s security, although he said Tuesday the U.S. would not send troops to keep the peace.
However, Trump left open the possibility of U.S. air support to keep Ukraine safe from future incursions.
“We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have," Trump said on Fox News.
Russia says it won’t accept “any scenarios” in which NATO troops are dispatched to Ukraine.
Trump is under pressure from his right flank to not further involve the U.S. in the war after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that the U.S. could participate in “Article 5-like protections” for Ukraine.
“I’m just lost how the United States offering an Article 5 commitment for a security guarantee to Ukraine is a win for the United States,” Steve Bannon said on his radio show.
Meanwhile, there are concerns about how much new Ukrainian territory Russia is seeking to keep and what land concessions Zelensky will be willing to concede.
In addition, Trump said he’s in discussion with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about missing Ukrainian children — a key concern for Zelensky and first lady Melania Trump, who wrote a personal letter to Putin to plead on their behalf.
“This is... a big subject with my wife, Melania,” Trump said on social media. “It is a subject at the top of all lists, and the World will work together to solve it, hopefully bringing them home to their families!”
More than 19,000 Ukrainian children are reported to have been abducted from their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine.
