[Q]: President Trump, sir, your message to the people of Ukraine as world leaders gather here today.

President Trump: We love them.

President Zelenskyy:

Many thanks to your wife, the First Lady of the United States.

[Q]: As you listen to Russia and Ukraine, which side has the better cards?

[President Trump]:
Well, I don't want to say that. I'm just here to be – Look, this isn't my war...

We want it to end good. The people of Ukraine have suffered incredibly.

President Trump:

We're going to work with Ukraine, we're going to work with everybody, and we're going to make sure that if there's peace, the peace is going to stay long-term. This is very long-term. We're not talking about a two-year peace and then we end up in this mess again.
We're going to make sure that everything's good. We'll work with Russia. We're going to work with Ukraine.

President Trump:

"I don't think you need a ceasefire <...> I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason - because you'd stop killing people immediately. But we can work a deal where we're working on a peace deal while they're fighting."

"We will give them [Ukraine] very good protection, very good security. That's part of it. And the people that are waiting for us, I think they're very like-minded. They want to help out also."

[Q]: Your team has talked about security guarantees. Could that involve U.S. troops? Would you rule that out in the future?

[President Trump]:
We'll let you know that maybe later today. We're meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we'll be talking about that.
They'll all be involved, but there'll be a lot of help. When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help. It's going to be good.
They are first line of defense because they're there. But we're going to help them out also. We'll be involved.

President Trump:

I love the Ukrainian people, but I love all people. I love the Russian people. I love them all. I want to get the war stopped.

A large map of Ukraine was placed in the Oval Office before the start of closed-door talks between Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump, BBC correspondent Anthony Zurcher reported.

According to Anthony Zurcher, the map was placed across the desk where Trump and Zelenskyy were sitting as soon as journalists were asked to leave the room. Ukrainian territories controlled by Russia are marked in pink.

Family photo line up in Washington.

President Trump:

We're going to try to work out a trilat after that and see if we can get it finished, put this to sleep, because this is not since the Second World War has there been anything like this.

President Trump:

Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine, and this is one of the key points that we need to consider, and we're going to be considering that at the table also, like who will do what.

President Zelenskyy:

"I think that we had a very good conversation with President Trump, very good. And it really was the best one... Or sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future. But it was really good."

Chancellor Merz:

"I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire. So let's work on that and let's try to put pressure on Russia because the credibility of these efforts we are undertaking today depends on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations."

President Macron:

When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent and this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this matter...

And in order to have such a long-standing peace for Ukraine and for the whole continent, we do need the security guarantees. And the first one is clearly a credible Ukrainian army for the years and decades to come. And the second one is our own commitments, all of us.

You can be sure that Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation.

Prime Minister Meloni:

We will talk about many important topics. The first one is security guarantees, how to be sure that it won't happen again, which is the precondition of every kind of peace. I'm happy that we will discuss that.

I'm happy that we will begin from a proposal, which is, let's say Article 5 model, which was Italian at the beginning.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer:

When we talk about security, we're talking about security not just of Ukraine, we're talking about the security of Europe and the United Kingdom as well, which is why this is such an important issue.

President Stubb:

Some of the international media might wonder, "Why is the President of Finland here?" I think the reason is probably that we might come from a small country, but we have a long border with Russia, over 800 miles, and we have our own historical experience with Russia from World War II, the Winter War, and the War of Continuation.

And if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944, and I'm sure that we'll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia's war of aggression and get a lasting and just peace.

President Stubb:

The fact that we're around this table today is very much symbolic in the sense that it's Team Europe and Team United States helping Ukraine.