Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Keith Kellogg, US Special Envoy to Ukraine, on Monday (IST) ahead of his high-stakes meeting with US President Donald Trump. In the meeting, the battlefield situation and the strong diplomatic capabilities were discussed.
The Ukrainian President, in a post on X, thanked Keith Kellogg for the meeting and the joint work and added that Trump invited Ukraine and other European countries to Washington.
“When peace is discussed for one country in Europe, it means peace for all of Europe. We are ready to continue working with maximum effort to end the war and to ensure reliable security. These are the key issues,” the Ukrainian President wrote.
“Last night, Russian attacks on our cities continued – among those killed were two children, and dozens of people were wounded. People were simply sleeping when the Russian army launched strikes on the cities,” Zelenskyy stated in the post.
“We discussed the battlefield situation and our strong diplomatic capabilities – Ukraine’s and all of Europe’s together with America. Russia can only be forced into peace through strength, and President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen,” he added.
I thank @GeneralKellogg for the meeting and for the joint work with our team. President Trump invited Ukraine and other European countries to Washington today – this is the first meeting in such a format, and it is very serious.
When peace is discussed for one country in Europe,… pic.twitter.com/ZMZaIzAghD
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 18, 2025
Also Read: Trump Tells Ukraine To Give Up Crimea, NATO Bid
‘Zelenskyy Could End…’: Trump
A day before meeting his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy, US President Trump on Sunday (local time) claimed that the Ukrainian leader could “end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to.”
Trump also reminded of the 2014 annexation of Crimea under the Barack Obama administration and ruled out Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Zelenskyy pushed back strongly against the temporary, short-term peace deal, stressing that the “peace must be lasting”. He referred to past incidents, such as when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea.
“And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East–part of Donbas–and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when Ukraine was given so-called ‘security guarantees’ in 1994, but they didn’t work,” Zelenskyy wrote in an X post..
Earlier, Zelenskyy arrived in Washington, D.C., for talks with Trump. This comes just days after the US President’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.