Lithuanian president to discuss outcome of White House talks with European leaders

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda will on Tuesday participate in a remote meeting of the European Council to discuss the outcome of negotiations that took place at the White House on Monday.

European Council president Antonio Costa said on Monday that the European Union's 27 leaders would discuss Ukraine and the outcome of high-stakes White House talks in a video conference on Tuesday.

"I have convened a video conference of the members of the European Council for tomorrow at 13.00 CEST, for a debriefing of today's meetings in Washington DC about Ukraine. Together with the US, the EU will continue working towards a lasting peace that safeguards Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests," he wrote on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.

They were later joined by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Trump said in an Oval Office meeting with Zelensky that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was "unnecessary."

After an hour of closed-door meeting with EU leaders and Zelensky, Trump then told reporters in the East Room that "all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace."

He added that he likes a ceasefire because it would "immediately stop the killing," but reiterated that a peace agreement between the two countries is "very attainable" at this point in the war.

The US president also said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that the Russian leader had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv's long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.

Trump said the guarantees "would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States of America."

Security guarantees were also mentioned by White House envoy Steve Witkoff who said on Sunday that Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed to "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine during a meeting in Alaska on Friday.

Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the Kremlin ordered the invasion, had been one of Trump's core demands before the Alaska summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.

But after the meeting yielded no breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine - a move that would appear to favor Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal.