European nations 'going to take a lot of burden' on deterring aggression against Ukraine, Trump says

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump have started their talks with European leaders at the White House.

They have met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, France's Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Germany's Friedrich Merz, Finland's Alexander Stubb, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, for a multilateral talk in the State Dining Room. Mr Trump said Vladimir Putin "agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine".

He added: "I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We're going to help them, and we're going to make it very secure." Follow the latest: Trump vows to stop war The US president said one point on the agenda for the leaders to discuss in Washington tonight was "who would do what".

The mention of US involvement in security guarantees was welcomed by the European leaders, with Ms Von der Leyen saying it was "good to hear" the nations were working on "Article Five-like security guarantees". NATO's Article Five is the principle that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all of them.

"When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent," French President Emmanuel Macron said. He added that one guarantee he would want to come out of any deals is that Ukraine should be able to have a "credible" army for "the years and decades to come" Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump previously met in the Oval Office, where Mr Trump already said that there would be some form of security guarantees for Ukraine, which would include the US being involved in providing them.

But the US president did not say whether any security guarantees would involve US troops. He later added that the US will provide "very good protection" for Ukraine.

Trilateral meeting possible The US president said that "if everything works out well today.