WASHINGTON — Two hundred and ten days after the day he said he would end Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, President Donald Trump again failed to do so Monday, only this time in the company of Ukraine’s leader and seven of his top European allies.
“I think that President Putin wants to find an answer, too, 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 we’re going to solve this,” Trump said, slipping into his familiar time frame of other goals he never accomplished, such as the release of his plans for health care or infrastructure — and one he has previously provided multiple times for how long it would take to know if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was serious about ending his war.
What happens next is unclear. Trump again floated the idea of Zelenskyy, Putin and himself meeting, but there is no indication that Putin is interested in stopping either his invasion force or his nightly drone and missile attacks against civilian targets.
Putin’s condition for doing so is for Ukraine to give him the land in the eastern part of the country that he has been unable to take by force for three and a half years.
In a news conference following the White House meeting, Zelenskyy said that Russia had agreed to a meeting between him and Putin, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he, indeed, expects it to take place within the next two weeks.
Trump’s comments came at the start of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the heads of the European Union, NATO and five separate Western European nations.
The impromptu defense summit came together within days of Trump’s Friday meeting with Putin, which ended without any apparent progress and certainly without the ceasefire Trump had said he would insist upon.
Soon afterward, it was announced that Zelenskyy would come to Washington to meet with Trump on Monday — possibly to prevent Putin’s explanation and rationale for his invasion from taking root in Trump’s mind and becoming his own.
The last time Zelenskyy visited the White House in February, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked and insulted him — treatment that was viewed with horror in European capitals. Within two days of the announcement of Zelenskyy’s Monday meeting, Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen all announced that they would be attending, as well.
“I’m very thankful to all the leaders who are here, and you help a lot,” Zelenskyy said at the start of the group meeting with Trump on Monday afternoon.
Rutte, who praised Trump repeatedly at June’s NATO summit in The Hague as part of an overall strategy by European leaders of flattering him to win him over, continued Monday. “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,” Rutte said.
Trump, for his part, continued to claim that Putin likes and respects him, despite all evidence to the contrary. “I think he wants to make a deal for me,” he told the others as they waited for the press pool to be escorted into the East Room.
His comment was captured by a microphone that was, evidently unbeknownst to him, already live.
Why Trump believes that, if he actually does, is not readily apparent.
Trump essentially took Russia’s side in its invasion of its neighbor during his first few months in office after having called Putin “savvy” and a “genius” in the days after the war began in February 2022. In recent months, Trump has said he has become exasperated by Putin’s continued attacks on Ukrainian civilians. But while he has spoken about holding Putin accountable for the slaughter, thus far, he has done little or nothing to achieve that.
An Aug. 8 deadline for Putin to declare a ceasefire or face more economic sanctions came and went with no action. Trump then eagerly agreed to meet Putin in Alaska and literally rolled out the red carpet to greet him.
Trump again claimed ahead of that meeting that Putin would face a penalty if he refused to end his nightly attacks on Ukrainian civilians and his continuing invasion.
“There will be very severe consequences,” he said Wednesday during a visit to the Kennedy Center.
On the flight out to Alaska, Trump said the whole point of the trip was to get a ceasefire. “I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
All that talk evaporated, though, after meeting his benefactor in the 2016 election face to face. Trump did not speak to reporters after the trip, but in an interview with unofficial adviser and Fox News host Sean Hannity, he said the burden was now on Zelenskyy and European leaders.
“Make a deal, got to make a deal. Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he said when asked what advice he would give Zelenskyy.