PinnedUpdated Aug. 18, 2025, 3:44 p.m. ETPresident Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with President Trump and an extraordinary delegation of European leaders at the White House on Monday, seeking to defend his nation’s interests as Mr. Trump presses for a quick peace agreement with Russia that would require Ukraine to make sweeping concessions.Wearing a black suit instead of his usual military clothing, and backed by European presidents and prime ministers who had rushed to Washington to support him, Mr. Zelensky was greeted warmly by Mr. Trump. Inside the Oval Office, the two presidents showed few signs of their once-frayed relationship, talked positively about the United States’ playing a role in security guarantees for Ukraine, and expressed their eagerness to arrange a trilateral meeting with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.But details of any progress toward peace were scarce. And Mr. Zelensky, now three and a half years into a war instigated by Russia, is expected to soon confront a difficult choice: surrender territory in exchange for vague promises for Ukraine’s future security, or hold his ground and risk reigniting Mr. Trump’s anger.During the portion of a meeting with European leaders and Mr. Zelensky that was open to reporters, Mr. Trump listened as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and President Emmanuel Macron of France pressed for a cease-fire, something Mr. Trump had said on Friday he wanted but abandoned as a condition after he met on Friday with Mr. Putin in Alaska.The initial interactions were a striking departure from the combative tone of Mr. Zelensky’s previous visit to the White House in February, when Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in the Oval Office on live television. Mr. Vance said nothing this time, and both presidents were genial. Mr. Zelensky absorbed jokes about his black suit and handed Mr. Trump a letter his wife had written to the first lady, Melania Trump.On Monday, Mr. Trump, a skeptic of multilateral alliances and deeply desiring of a Nobel Peace Prize, was not specific about what security guarantees for Ukraine would look like, although he said the U.S. would help in some way, and he did not rule out involving American troops. He said he believed he could secure a joint meeting with Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky “if everything works out well today,” and that there was a “reasonable chance in ending the war” through such a meeting.Mr. Trump told reporters, with Mr. Zelensky sitting beside him, that he had communicated indirectly with Mr. Putin earlier on Monday, and would speak with him later in the day.Mr. Trump also continued to push back on criticism that he had given Mr. Putin a major diplomatic victory by hosting him for a summit in Alaska, asserting that it had been difficult for Mr. Putin to come to the United States. In reality, it was the first time Mr. Putin had been warmly embraced in the West since the war made him an international pariah, and he seemed to delight at the opportunity to take part.While Mr. Zelensky said he was ready for a trilateral meeting, he has steadfastly rejected ceding land to Russia. But as Mr. Trump has aligned more closely with Russia after his warm meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Zelensky now faces increased pressure to persuade the United States that Ukraine should get a better deal.Mr. Trump has swung between saying in their last Oval Office meeting that Mr. Zelensky does not hold “the cards” in the war, to more recently expressing public frustration that Mr. Putin was stringing him along and agreeing to sell more arms to European nations that would be earmarked for Ukraine. Asked at the outset of their Monday meeting which side was in better position now, Mr. Trump said he didn’t want to discuss that, and repeated his oft-stated desire an end to the fighting.In a sign of the alarm among allies, a posse of European leaders — including Keir Starmer of Britain, Mr. Macron, and two leaders whom Mr. Trump generally likes, Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Alexander Stubb of Finland — had rushed to join Monday’s meetings in an effort to show solidarity with Ukraine and “to defend the interests of the Europeans,” according to Mr. Macron.Several top European officials have warned that if Mr. Putin, who has a history of breaking diplomatic commitments, is not stopped in Ukraine, he could try to take more European territory by force.Here’s what else to know:Suiting up: During his famously acrimonious meeting with Mr. Trump in March, Mr. Zelensky’s military-style attire became a talking point. On Monday, perhaps wary of a repeat, the Ukrainian president adopted a more statesmanlike ensemble: black field jacket, black shirt and black slacks. Mr. Trump took note.Deadly strikes: Hours before the meetings in Washington, Russian attacks in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia killed at least 10 people, including a child, and injured dozens of others, the Ukrainian authorities said. Mr. Zelensky condemned the strikes as a deliberate attempt to put pressure on Ukraine amid the talks.Putin’s plan: Before meeting with Mr. Putin on Friday in Alaska, Mr. Trump had said that there would be “severe consequences” if the Russian leader did not agree to a cease-fire. But since the meeting, Mr. Trump has backed Mr. Putin’s plan for skipping cease-fire discussions and proceeding to a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding land to Russia, which now occupies almost 20 percent of Ukraine.Aug. 18, 2025, 4:15 p.m. ETNATO troops at a military exercise in June.Credit...Louisa Gouliamaki/ReutersRussia, seeking to emphasize its stance on peace negotiations as European leaders gathered in the White House, issued a lengthy statement on Monday rejecting the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine as part of any security guarantees.The statement, issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry, also criticized Britain for pushing the idea, part of a long tradition of blaming London for Western moves that Moscow deems hostile to Russia.The statement raised further questions about what the United States and Russia discussed in the Alaska summit on Friday. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, said on CNN on Sunday that Moscow had agreed that Washington and its European allies could extend security guarantees to Ukraine that would resemble NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of any deal to end the conflict.“We reaffirm our repeatedly stated position of categorical rejection of any scenarios involving the presence of a military contingent from NATO countries in Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.Aside from Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, the leaders of various members of the military alliance were at the White House on Monday, including from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Finland.Just before his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked whether the United States would send American troops to Ukraine as part of any peacekeeping effort. Mr. Trump did not answer the question directly, but said that there would be a lot of help when it comes to security.“We’re going to help them out, also, we’ll be involved,” Mr. Trump said.Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly pushed for security guarantees for Ukraine to make sure that Russia won’t just agree to a deal and then invade Ukraine again after regrouping. When asked by a reporter what kind of security guarantees he wanted, Mr. Zelensky said: “Everything.”Sitting next to the Ukrainian leader, Mr. Trump continued offering vague statements about Kyiv’s security guarantees.“We will give them very good protection and very good security,” Mr. Trump said, without offering specifics.Kim Barker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:43 p.m. ETPresident Zelensky has repeatedly tried to bring up the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russians with President Trump. Many Ukrainian prisoners of war have reported being tortured — forced to stand all day, beaten if they didn’t sing the Russian national anthem, given electric shocks and starved. At his contentious meeting in February with Trump, Zelensky showed him photographs of Ukrainian prisoners before their capture and after their release.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:39 p.m. ETPresident Trump said he expected President Vladimir Putin of Russia to release more than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners after a trilateral meeting was set up with President Volodymyr Zelensky, though Putin has not yet agreed to the meeting. The exact number of Ukrainian prisoners of war is not known, but it is most likely thousands. Russia also holds thousands of Ukrainian civilians, whom they often treat as prisoners of war, complicating the count. The prisoner exchange would be one of the largest so far in the war. In May, the two countries exchanged 1,000 prisoners over three days.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesAug. 18, 2025, 3:24 p.m. ETTo recap, Trump and Zelensky in their latest remarks from the White House seemed to remove two of the most contentious issues from the table, at least for the time being. The leaders suggested that discussions of a possible cease-fire, along with negotiations over territory, should be conducted in a hypothetical face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin, possibly with Trump in attendance. Trump, backed by Zelensky, has said he would like such a meeting to come together quickly. The Kremlin, however, has been silent on the issue.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:19 p.m. ETThe avalanche of praise for President Trump from the Europeans is not quite comparable to what we hear from Trump’s cabinet, but clearly they’ve taken lessons in flattery.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:19 p.m. ET“I don’t think there’s any issue that’s overly complex,” Trump said as he and European leaders prepare to continue negotiations over the future of the war in Ukraine.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:17 p.m. ET“President Putin wants to find an answer, too,’’ Trump says. It’s not clear that he does at a time when he is gaining ground on the battlefield.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:16 p.m. ETThe Ukrainians have welcomed the proposal of security guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5. But they say that these guarantees can be effective only if they are legally binding and provide for specific defensive steps in case of a new Russian attack.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:16 p.m. ETTrump again mentioned that he hoped for trilateral negotiations involving Putin, Zelensky and himself. While Putin has not refused outright to meet with Zelensky, he has made no secret of the fact that he does not consider the Ukrainian president, formerly a successful comedian on Russian and Ukrainian television, either legitimate or his equal.Speaking in June, Putin said he would meet with Zelensky only after the details of any peace deal had been negotiated. “I am ready to meet with everyone, including Zelensky,” Putin told the heads of international news agencies on the margins of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum two months ago. “But that is not the question. The question is who will sign the documents.” That last statement has been central to the Kremlin argument that denies Zelensky’s political legitimacy since the war delayed elections in Ukraine as its law stipulates. Putin himself has repeatedly altered the Russian Constitution in order to remain president.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:14 p.m. ETPresident Trump asked for a round-robin of comments from European leaders, who complimented him on his ability to bring Russia to the table while stressing that Ukraine needed security guarantees and a cease-fire to bring peace.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:13 p.m. ETPresident Emmanuel Macron of France begins his remarks by turning to Trump and stating, “Everyone around this table wants peace.” Trump yesterday put the onus on Zelensky, saying on social media that the Ukrainian leader could end the war with Russia “if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.” Of course, Zelensky is leading the nation that was invaded in the first place.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesVideotranscriptbars0:00/0:38-0:00transcriptI just have to say here, everybody around this table is in favor of peace. And we work very hard, and we’ve worked very hard during the past few years to have a peace which is robust and longstanding peace. This is why the idea of a trilateral meeting is very important, because this is the only way to fix it. And by the way, I think as a follow up, we would need probably a quadrilateral meeting because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent. And this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this matter.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:12 p.m. ETItaly’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, also mentions Article 5, the section of the NATO treaty that calls for all members to defend a member that is attacked. Of course, Ukraine is not a NATO member at all, but clearly the Europeans are trying to make the case that even if Ukraine is outside of NATO, with no prospect of joining in the coming years, it will be treated as if it is inside.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:11 p.m. ETMerz and his team have consistently said a cease-fire must come first before further negotiations, and he’s hammered that point now both for Trump and for his governing partners back home.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:10 p.m. ET“The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones,’’ Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany says. “I can’t imagine the next meeting will take place without a cease-fire.” Of course, Trump just said a cease-fire was out of reach. He doesn’t contradict Merz, but notes that in other conflicts there was no such cease-fire. “If we can get a cease-fire, great,’’ Trump said.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:07 p.m. ETUrsula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, went from not being able to get a meeting with President Trump earlier this year to having a solid rapport with him. The pair just struck a rough-outline trade deal, which the Europeans have been selling as the biggest trade deal in history — a line Trump has run with, and repeated just now.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:06 p.m. ETUrsula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, refers to “Article 5-like security guarantees,’’ a backdoor way of saying that even if Ukraine is not a member of NATO, it should be treated as one.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:05 p.m. ETSignificantly, Zelensky said that territorial concessions, perhaps the most sensitive issue in these talks, would be settled in an as yet unscheduled face-to-face meeting with Putin.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesAug. 18, 2025, 3:05 p.m. ET“Thank you for the map, by the way,’’ Zelensky says, an indication that the land swaps issues are being debated in significant detail.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:03 p.m. ETPresident Trump gave President Volodymyr Zelensky the chance to speak at the news conference after his meeting with European leaders. Zelensky said he had a “very good conversation with President Trump.” He also said that security guarantees were essential to end the war, as well as a full prisoner exchange.VideoAug. 18, 2025, 3:01 p.m. ETZelensky has learned his lesson: Compliment Trump at every moment. But he turns immediately to security guarantees, which Zelensky and the Europeans all recognize is as hard, or even harder, than establishing new geographic boundaries.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesAug. 18, 2025, 3:00 p.m. ETTrump said that “all of us would prefer an immediate cease-fire,” but said that it would be up to Zelensky and Putin to work that out. “As of this moment it’s not happening.”Aug. 18, 2025, 3:00 p.m. ET“This is the only one left,’’ Trump said of significant wars around the world. He seemed to have forgotten about the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.Aug. 18, 2025, 3:00 p.m. ETTrump says the leaders will need to discuss “the possible exchanges of territory” and take into consideration the current “war lines.”Aug. 18, 2025, 2:22 p.m. ETPresident Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wore a dark suit at the White House.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesNew negotiation, new look. When President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived at the White House on Monday to meet with President Trump, he had swapped the military-style clothing that has been his de facto uniform since the war with Russia began in 2022, for a more statesmanlike ensemble: black field jacket, black shirt and black slacks.Was it an early sign he was ready to make some concessions?That may seem a ridiculous question. But Mr. Trump is someone who cares deeply about the ceremony and trappings of office — its regalia, gilt, and even souvenir pins — and since the start of the war Mr. Zelensky has made his look part of his message.Indeed, during his first, famously acrimonious meeting with Mr. Trump in March, Mr. Zelensky’s chosen attire — a black long-sleeved polo shirt with the Ukrainian trident as a crest and matching fatigue-like trousers — became not only a talking point but, in the view of some Trump officials, a seeming symbol of his refusal to kowtow to the White House.Mr. Trump commented sarcastically on the look as soon as Mr. Zelensky arrived, and a reporter later implied in a question that the Ukrainian president had been demonstrating disrespect-through-dress — even though there should have been no real mystery about what Mr. Zelensky was going to wear.He had, after all, made a point of wearing pretty much the same thing no matter where he was for three years: an olive green or black shirt or sweater, pants, and combat boots. The look served as both a visual reminder of his status as a wartime president, and show of solidarity with the men and women fighting for his country.He had worn olive green, for example, to the Oval Office to meet with President Joseph R. Biden and to address Congress in 2022. He had done the same for a speech to the European Parliament in 2023, and to meet with King Charles III in 2024. Thus, despite the fact the White House had reportedly reached out before the first meeting to inquire about whether Mr. Zelensky was going to wear a suit (reflecting the fact it clearly mattered to Mr. Trump), there was little doubt that he would, as he did, stick to his own program.Not so much any more.The new look black jacket first appeared in April, when Mr. Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, attended the funeral of Pope Francis. For that occasion, the Ukrainian president wore a custom-made look by the Kiev-based designer Viktor Anisimov (who also designed the opening ceremony looks for the Ukrainian Paralympic team). The clothing was part of a larger capsule collection commissioned by Mr. Zelensky’s team and designed to combine some of the semiology of the battlefield — patch pockets, a higher neckline — with that of the suit.At the time, Mr. Anisimov told WWD that the goal was to reimagine the military uniform “in order to create a restrained, functional, and dignified image that reflects the reality of the time our country is living through.”The jacket (or a very similar style), as well as the coordinating black trousers and a black button-up, appeared to make a reappearance during Mr. Zelensky’s meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain in June, as well as just during the NATO summit in The Hague shortly thereafter, when Mr. Zelensky also met with Mr. Trump — who reportedly noticed Mr. Zelensky’s fashion evolution with approval.He was not the only one. The Kyiv Post reported on the change, as did Ukrainian Elle. Whether the ensemble was actually a suit or rather a suit-like jacket-and-slacks combination caused some debate in the betting market, but either way, and despite the fact it was still dark, as if to signal the dark days, it was unquestionably more formal than Mr. Zelensky’s usual attire; a sort of fashion DMZ situated between the two sides of combat and classic. No tie, but no cargo pants either.That may be the same space Mr. Zelensky was hoping to occupy at the White House on Monday.In any case, the new look seemed to once again please Mr. Trump — it was specifically mentioned by the reporter who had originally criticized Mr. Zelensky’s attire — who probably saw it as a “win.” Just as Mr. Trump’s first attacks on Mr. Zelensky (and his clothing) seemed to be a scripted-for-TV scene, Mr. Zelensky’s willingness to change his costume may have been taken by Mr. Trump as a sign that he was running the show.Whether it actually signals a change in the storyline is a different question.A correction was made on Aug. 18, 2025: An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the reigning king of Britain. He is Charles III, not Charles II.When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more