Ukraine's allies were meeting on Tuesday, August 19, to discuss the outcome of fast-moving talks to end the war with Russia, after indications that Volodymyr Zelensky could sit down with Vladimir Putin for a peace summit. A face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since Russia's brutal invasion nearly three-and-a-half years ago.
Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Washington for the talks on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, said France and Britain would hold a meeting on Tuesday with around 30 of Kyiv's allies. The virtual meeting of the so-called "coalition of the willing" would "keep them up to date on what was decided," Macron told French news channel LCI. "Right after that, we'll start concrete work with the Americans."
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are co-hosting the meeting, which will "discuss next steps" for Ukraine, a UK government spokesperson told Agence France-Presse, as Kyiv seeks backing from allies to enforce any peace deal.
Macron suggested Geneva could host peace talks, but said it was "up to Ukraine" to decide whether to make concessions on territory, including parts of the eastern Donbas region still under its control. "Putin has rarely honored his commitments," he added, calling the Russian leader a "predator, an ogre at our gates" – comments that underscored wider European wariness. Putin "has constantly been a force for destabilization. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power," Macron said.
Switzerland would grant Russian President Vladimir Putin immunity from prosecution if he came to the country for talks on peace in Ukraine, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said Tuesday. Putin faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. But last year, the Swiss government defined "the rules for granting immunity to a person under an international arrest warrant. If this person comes for a peace conference, not if they come for private reasons," Cassis told a press conference.
Trump, who last week held talks with Putin in Alaska, wrote on his Truth Social network after Monday's meetings that "everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine."
"At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky," he added. Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was part of the European delegation, said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks. Zelensky said he was "ready" to meet his bitter foe Putin, while in Moscow, a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the "idea" of direct talks with Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday any peace deal with Ukraine must ensure Russia's security. "Without respect for Russia's security interests, without full respect for the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people who live in Ukraine, there can be no talk of any long-term agreements," Lavrov told state TV channel Rossiya 24.
Trump's summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce any ceasefire, with no let-up since in daily Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. Zelensky then rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia. Zelensky also met one-on-one in the Oval Office with Trump in their first encounter there since their acrimonious blow-up in February.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting was their "best" yet, with little of the tension that erupted when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of TV cameras for not being "grateful" for US support.