“Europe and America are very united here: We will closely accompany Ukraine on its way to a ceasefire,” he wrote on X.
“Europe will increase pressure on Moscow through sanctions. We agreed on this with the US President after his talks with Putin.”
Earlier in the day, Trump said he would not increase sanctions on Russia “because there’s a chance” of progress.
“Because I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you could also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen,” he said, commenting on his two-hour-long phone conversation with Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Trump twice on May 19—before and after Trump’s call with Putin. Several European leaders joined the second conversation.
“It was a rather long conversation, lasting over an hour, in a different format: besides myself and president Trump, we were joined by our partners — [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
“As far as I understand, President Trump thinks that the most important thing is to have direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. That is his position.”