Overview

• The White House session with President Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders outlined a sequence for a Zelensky–Putin bilateral followed by a trilateral, with late‑August timing under discussion.
• The Kremlin is pressing for full control of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson plus recognition of Crimea, while Kyiv rejects ceding land though Zelensky signaled talks could start from the current front line.
• EU leaders advanced a collective‑defence guarantee for Ukraine modeled on NATO’s Article 5 with U.S. participation under debate, as Trump ruled out deploying U.S. troops and said some European capitals favor sending forces.
• Arms support is shifting to purchases: Trump says the U.S. will sell weapons, with reporting of roughly $100 billion in EU‑financed orders and a $50 billion U.S.–Ukraine drone production venture under negotiation.
• Diplomats flagged five hurdles to any deal: meeting sequencing and venue, the status of occupied territories, the shape of security guarantees, long‑term arms financing, and the return of deported Ukrainian children alongside prisoner exchanges.