United States President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky have held their first face-to-face talks in more than four months, meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Évian-les-Bains, eastern France.
French President Emmanuel Macron joined the 30-minute encounter on June 16, which Kyiv had pushed for as it sought to revive stalled peace negotiations with Moscow. The three leaders later took part in a wider G7 working session at which Russia’s war against Ukraine was the central topic.
The talks came as the European members of the group sought to persuade Trump to keep up pressure on Russia and to avoid steering Kyiv towards territorial concessions. France, which holds the G7 presidency this year, said the group had agreed to increase pressure on Moscow.
Zelensky said air defence support for Ukraine had been agreed among G7 partners, adding that all members would work to strengthen the country’s protection. He had earlier urged the leaders to deliver a decisive response to Russia’s latest wave of strikes.
Trump confirmed the meeting during a press conference alongside the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and said the two presidents would meet again later the same day.
The Ukrainian leader said he had offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a meeting to end the war but that Moscow had turned it down. “We offered Putin a meeting anywhere [so] real decisions to end the war could be made. He does not want it,” Zelensky wrote on X.
The encounter followed Russian strikes on Kyiv that killed 11 people and started a fire at the historic Dormition Cathedral inside the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex.
Trump turned his attention back to Ukraine after brokering a framework agreement with Iran intended to halt hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The deal, ending a war launched on February 28 by the US and Israel against Tehran, is due to be signed in Switzerland on June 19.
The president said Russia had to agree to end the fighting in Ukraine, pointing to heavy casualties on both sides each month.
The summit, running from June 15 to 17 in the spa town on the shores of Lake Geneva, has placed the war and the crisis in the Middle East at the top of its agenda.
