LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump has revealed his latest plans to end the war in Ukraine.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump said he was setting up a direct meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That would then be followed by talks between the two leaders and Trump. Now, the date and location are still unclear. That message followed a meeting at the White House on Monday, where Trump hosted Zelenskyy and seven European leaders to make progress on ending the war Russia launched in Ukraine.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we're going to work with Ukraine. We're going to work with everybody. And we're going to make sure that if there's peace, the peace is going to stay long-term.
MARTÍNEZ: Remember, just days earlier, Trump met Putin in Alaska.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben has been following all of this and is here to break it down for us. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
FADEL: So what stood out to you with these White House-brokered talks?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, first of all, it's just remarkable to have such a big group of world leaders come together - on short notice, no less. And those leaders - they talked for hours yesterday. Trump and Zelenskyy met on their own, and then the other European leaders joined for talks. It was a scheduled meeting in the East Room that then carried on later in the Oval Office. One other thing that stands out to me, though, now that it's over is that the White House is trying to create the sense of momentum here. Immediately afterwards, Trump said he spoke with Putin and that he had already started planning for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face, and that trilateral meeting you mentioned.
FADEL: OK. And Ukraine and Europe want security guarantees to keep the peace in Ukraine if there's a deal. What progress did the leaders make on that?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, we know leaders discussed this. Afterward, Trump said a guarantee would involve, as he put it, coordination from the U.S., but he didn't say specifically what that would mean. It's hard to know what to think of that without details. Trump also said yesterday that Putin is open to a guarantee. But again, we don't know what Russia is open to here. So a lot is up in the air there. But another thing the leaders discussed is the return of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia, including children, and Trump said he thinks Putin is open to that.
FADEL: Danielle, another central issue here is a ceasefire. At first, President Trump was pushing for an immediate ceasefire before any talks. Then he did an about-face after his meeting with Putin, and now he's been saying that he thinks they should just get into talks to work out a full peace deal. Did we hear more about this?
KURTZLEBEN: We heard a bit. We heard that Ukraine wants a ceasefire before further talks, and you did have Chancellor Merz of Germany and French President Macron really push for that. Now, without a ceasefire, Ukraine is concerned that Russia could drag out the war, continuing its attacks on Ukraine even as peace deal talks continue. Trump, for his part, though, said yesterday that he doesn't oppose a ceasefire, but also that it's not necessary.
FADEL: And what about the issue of land? Did the leaders discuss the possibility of Ukraine giving up land that Russia illegally took or occupies?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, at least in their public remarks, Trump was the only one who mentioned it, saying that Ukraine and Russia needed to talk about that based on the, quote, "current line of contact." Now, land is a very contentious issue in these talks. Russia already annexed Crimea in 2014 and now wants more of eastern Ukraine, which Zelenskyy opposes.
FADEL: Speaking of contentious issues, I didn't see the berating of Zelenskyy that we saw back in February when he came to the White House.
KURTZLEBEN: Right, yes. You did not have Zelenskyy and Trump get into any arguments. In fact, this meeting, Zelenskyy seemed to be deliberately showing deference, thanking Trump repeatedly. He also wore a suit, which is something that Trump said that he liked.
FADEL: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Yeah. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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