‘He couldn’t have been nicer’ Trump and Zelensky give positive signals after meeting on NATO summit sidelines

U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday.

The conversation, which took place after the two-day summit’s official planned events, lasted about 40 minutes. The leaders did not issue a joint statement afterward.

Writing on Telegram after the meeting, Zelensky called it “lengthy and substantive,” saying the presidents discussed “all of the truly important issues.” He thanked Trump and the United States. “We talked about how to achieve a ceasefire and a true peace, and we talked about how to protect our people,” he added, promising to provide more details later.

About an hour after the meeting, Ukrainian Presidential Office Head Andriy Yermak commented on the meeting with a series of positive emojis in a Telegram post.

Shortly after speaking to Zelensky, Trump held an end-of-summit press conference. Though his statement to the media lasted 15 minutes, he mentioned the war in Ukraine only in passing. Later, responding to a question about the meeting with Zelensky, Trump sounded satisfied, saying his Ukrainian counterpart “couldn’t have been nicer” and that he’s “fighting a brave battle.” Trump also said that he plans to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to “see if we can get [the war] ended.”

Asked why he hadn’t managed to end the war in Ukraine after five months in office, despite having promised on the campaign trail to broker a peace agreement “within 24 hours,” Trump said Putin was “more difficult” than he expected and that the negotiations had been “more difficult than anyone had thought.” He also referenced his February Oval Office spat with Zelensky, saying that he “had some problems” with the Ukrainian president.

Bloomberg, citing an informed source, reported that in a private meeting with NATO leaders earlier in the day, Trump called the situation in Ukraine “completely out of control” and said that “something must be done.” According to the source, the meeting attendees took this as a “positive sign” that Trump is still interested in brokering a ceasefire.