President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, met behind closed doors Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The two leaders did not take questions or pose for media photos ahead of the hour-long sitdown, with Trump briefly emerging to speak to reporters following the meeting.
“I think the meeting was good,” the American president said, reiterating his belief that the almost four-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine “has to end” and “we hope it’s going to end.”
Zelensky spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov noted Trump and Zelensky had a “brief one-on-one conversation” following the conclusion of the formal meeting.
“We didn’t count how long the meeting lasted, but it was good,” added the Ukraine president’s media adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn.
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner are scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Friday as they try to restart moribund efforts to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
Witkoff insisted Thursday at a Davos breakfast meeting on the future of Ukraine that “a lot of progress” had been made, but one outstanding issue remained, which he did not specify.
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” the envoy promised.
This past weekend, Ukrainian officials traveled to Miami to meet with Witkoff and Kushner to try yet again to iron out details of security guarantees meant to deter future Russian aggression.
Last month, Zelesnky announced he would agree to the establishment of a demilitarized “free economic zone” in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, in exchange for Russia agreeing to halt its invasion.
That plan would preclude Kyiv having to formally recognize any Ukrainian land as Russian — a long-held and unyielding red line for Zelensky. And it would need critical sign-off from Moscow as well as Ukrainian voters, who would be asked for their approval via a referendum.
The US is also hopeful of concluding an agreement to grant American companies preferential access to Ukraine’s critical minerals.
Zelensky has accused Putin of stalling peace efforts as Russian forces have launched repeated attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in the dead of winter.
