Trump-Zelenskyy meet on sidelines of NATO summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday as “long and substantive,” saying the two talked about achieving a ceasefire in the Russian war in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy had hoped to use a 50-minute meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague to lobby Trump for investment in Ukraine’s defense effort against Russia.

“We covered all the truly important issues. I thank Mr. President, I thank the United States,” he wrote on X.

“We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people.”

Russia’s February 2022 invasion is grinding toward its three-and-a-half year mark, and Trump has shown no sign of resuming the donations of weaponry that his predecessor Joe Biden had instituted.

Trump said later on Wednesday that his closely watched meeting in The Hague with Zelenskyy “couldn’t have been nicer.”

“You know, we had a little rough times sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer,” said Trump of the meeting, seemingly referring to an infamous shouting match between the two leaders in the Oval Office.