Despite a flurry of meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine, major obstacles
to peace remain
[August 20, 2025]
By BARRY HATTON and KATIE MARIE DAVIES
The second Oval Office meeting in six months between U.S. President
Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off
smoothly Monday, in sharp contrast to their disastrous encounter in
February.
European leaders joined the discussions in a show of transatlantic
unity, and both they and Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump for his
efforts to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his expectations for the meeting
“were not just met, they were exceeded,” while Zelenskyy on Tuesday
called the sit-down “an important step toward ending this war.”
But despite the guarded optimism and friendly banter among the leaders,
there was little concrete progress on the main obstacles to peace — and
that deadlock likely favors Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose
forces continue to make steady, if slow, progress on the ground in
Ukraine.
“Putin cannot get enough champagne or whatever he’s drinking,”
Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former foreign minister of Lithuania, said of
Monday's meeting.
As NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told The Ingraham Angle on Fox
News: “All the details have to be hammered out."
Here is a look at the issues that must be resolved:
Security guarantees for Ukraine
To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it
can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin’s forces.
That means, Zelenskyy says, a strong Ukrainian army that is provided
with weapons and training by Western partners.
It could potentially also mean securing a guarantee resembling NATO’s
collective defense mandate, which sees an attack on one member of the
alliance as an attack on all. How that would work is not clear.
Additionally, Kyiv's European allies are looking to set up a force that
could backstop any peace agreement in Ukraine.
A coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and
Australia, have signed up to support the initiative, although the role
that the U.S. might play in such a force is unclear.
European leaders, fearing Moscow’s territorial ambitions won’t stop in
Ukraine, are keen to lock America’s military might into the plan.
On Tuesday, Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that U.S.
troops would not be sent to help defend Ukraine against Russia.
Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept NATO troops in
Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron
co-chaired an online meeting Tuesday of the coalition countries.
Agreeing on a ceasefire
Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a
ceasefire while peace talks are held.
Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in
Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement.
Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened
Russia with “severe consequences” if it didn’t accept a ceasefire.
Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a
comprehensive peace deal — an approach that Putin has pushed for.
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President Donald Trump greets Russia's President Vladimir Putin
Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Trump said in Monday’s Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy that a
ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was “unnecessary.” But after
his closed-door meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump
told reporters that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate
ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.”
Where Trump ultimately falls on that issue is important because it
could affect how much Ukrainian land Russia has seized by the time
the two sides get around to hammering out how much it could keep.
Occupied Ukrainian territory
Zelenskyy and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that
Ukraine give up the Donbas, the country's industrial heartland made
up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It has seen some of the most
intense fighting of the war though Russian forces have failed to
capture it completely.
Moscow also illegally annexed Crimea and its forces hold parts of
four other regions outside the Donbas. In all, they hold about
one-fifth of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has long noted the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits
breaking up his country. He has also suggested the demand for
territory would serve as a springboard for a future Russian
invasion.
Rutte said the possibility of Ukraine ceding occupied territory to
Russia in return for peace wasn’t discussed in Monday’s talks. That
is an issue for Zelenskyy and Putin to consider, he said to Fox
News.
A Putin-Zelenskyy meeting
Zelenskyy has repeatedly suggested sitting down with Putin, even
challenging the Russian leader to meet him as part of direct peace
talks between the two sides in Turkey in May. Putin snubbed that
offer, saying that significant progress on an agreement would have
to be made before the pair met in person.
On Monday, Trump appeared to back Zelenskyy's plan. “I called
President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a
location to be determined, between President Putin and President
Zelenskyy,” Trump said in a social media post.
He said he would join the two leaders afterward.
But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between
Trump and the Russian leader, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri
Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral
meeting with Ukraine had been agreed.
European leaders know that Putin doesn't want to meet Zelenskyy and
that he won't allow Western troops in Ukraine — but they're
expressing optimism that these things could happen in the hopes of
forcing Putin to be the one to say no to Trump, according to Janis
Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security
Affairs.
“Europeans hype up expectations to create a reality in which Putin
disappoints,” he wrote on X.
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