SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
On Friday morning, aboard Air Force One, President Trump talked tough to Fox News, going into his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I won't be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.
DETROW: When he landed in Anchorage, Alaska, Trump rolled out the red carpet - literally - for the Russian leader, let him ride in the presidential limousine and spoke with Putin for three hours. But in the end, no ceasefire was agreed to. Still, Trump is calling the meeting a great success. And tomorrow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several other European leaders are set to meet with Trump at the White House. NPR's Luke Garrett is here to talk about what comes next. Hey there.
LUKE GARRETT, BYLINE: Hey. How's it going?
DETROW: Let's start with the guest list. Who is attending tomorrow's meeting?
GARRETT: So Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, of course, will be there, along with Europe's top leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte. Many other country leaders, like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have said they're also traveling to D.C. with other European leaders. And their presence is really notable here, Scott, because it shows a united European front alongside Zelenskyy. We all remember the last time Zelenskyy met with Trump in the Oval Office in February. That meeting ended in shouting and a fractured relationship between Trump and the Ukrainian leader. We don't know how tomorrow will play out, but Zelenskyy will have allies with him in the White House. But to be clear, these European leaders really have their skin in the game as well, in terms of their roles and a potential security guarantee for Ukraine.
DETROW: So this is Monday. Friday, Trump met with Putin for several hours in Alaska. What does that summit tell us about what we could expect tomorrow with Zelenskyy and these other leaders?
GARRETT: It tells us a lot. This morning, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was part of the Trump-Putin meeting, pulled back the curtain on what was discussed and possibly agreed to on Friday. Witkoff told CNN that the Russians made concessions on security guarantees for Ukraine. Now, the devil will be in the details here - what kind of protections were actually agreed to and who will enforce them? Witkoff really didn't say. And it's also worth noting here that the Russians haven't confirmed this, so a bit of a grain of salt there. And separately, you know, Witkoff said that the Russians want Ukrainian land, something Putin has been saying since the war began.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEVE WITKOFF: The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians, that could not have been discussed at this meeting. We intend to discuss it on Monday.
GARRETT: So in Witkoff's telling, the negotiation table is really set with Ukrainian security guarantees on one side and a potential land swap on the other, with a peace agreement kind of hanging in the balance. Witkoff said he's hopeful for a peace deal, but other U.S. officials at that Friday meeting really weren't so sure.
DETROW: OK, tell me more about that, then.
GARRETT: Right, so Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a different tone this morning about a possible deal. Here's Rubio on ABC News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARCO RUBIO: We're still a long ways off. I mean, we're not at the precipice of a peace agreement. We're not at the edge of one, but I do think progress was made.
GARRETT: And Rubio said if no peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine, Trump still has levers of power against Putin's economy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RUBIO: In terms of sanctions, look, at the end of the day, if we can't reach a peace agreement here and this war continues and so forth, then I anticipate you'll see the president take further action. He's already made that clear.
GARRETT: Ultimately, Rubio framed the negotiation similarly to Witkoff in that Ukrainian security guarantees and land exchanges are the bargaining chips here. Rubio said it will be up to Putin and Zelenskyy to make this deal.
DETROW: So that's the United States' side of things. You mentioned before how tense and disastrous previous meetings between Trump and Zelenskyy have been this year. What are we hearing from Zelenskyy ahead of this?
GARRETT: Zelenskyy said Sunday that the signal of possible Ukrainian security guarantees coming from that Friday summit marked a, quote, "significant change." But Zelenskyy also highlighted that there are no details on how these theoretical safety assurances will actually work on the ground. Most importantly, the Ukrainian leader rejected the idea of giving away the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine or trading any land. He also really renewed his calls for a ceasefire. So obviously, there are a lot of details here that still need to be sorted out, but President Trump and Zelenskyy both agree that a peace deal, if it was finalized, would really need a trilateral meeting between the Russians, Ukrainians and the U.S. No such meeting has been planned as of yet.
DETROW: That's NPR's Luke Garrett. Thanks so much for all of that.
GARRETT: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
