Trump met with Zelensky in Davos and reinforced his push for a negotiated end to the war with Russia

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, met this Thursday in Davos with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a meeting that both described as positive and that is part of the White House's efforts to move toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"I think the meeting was good. It's an ongoing process and a lot of people are dying", Trump stated to the press after the meeting, which lasted just under an hour. The U.S. president stressed the urgency of ending the conflict and maintained that in the last month alone around 30,000 people have died, mostly soldiers. "It's really a war that has to end. Everyone wants it to end", he emphasized.

Trump activates his direct channel with Moscow

As part of his diplomatic strategy, Trump confirmed that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will maintain direct contacts with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as part of a framework of multilateral negotiations aimed at exploring a way out of the conflict.

According to the president himself, the talks are part of a coordinated effort that includes subsequent meetings in the Middle East on military and economic issues, which reinforces the profile of the United States as the only actor with real capacity for dialogue with all the parties involved.

From the Ukrainian side, the assessment was also positive. Zelensky described the meeting as "very good" and, according to the Presidency of Ukraine, both leaders also held a brief one-on-one conversation toward the end of the meeting, a gesture that reinforces the direct political channel between Washington and Kyiv.

The Peace Board and Trump's role

Trump clarified that during the meeting they didn't address the recently established Peace Board, officially presented in Davos and to which both Zelensky and Putin were invited. The Ukrainian president had indicated in advance that he wouldn't join that forum if the Russian leader also participated.

Despite this, the White House made it clear that Trump's focus is on concrete results and not on symbolic gestures, prioritizing direct negotiations and effective diplomatic pressure to accelerate the end of hostilities.

Zelensky demands security guarantees from the United States

During his subsequent speech at the World Economic Forum, Zelensky insisted that Ukraine needs explicit security guarantees from the United States to prevent new Russian aggression in the future. "Without the United States there are no security guarantees," he stated, even if European countries such as the United Kingdom and France are willing to deploy troops.

The Ukrainian president implicitly acknowledged Trump's leadership by pointing out that U.S. support is decisive for any future stability framework. He also compared Putin's situation with that of Nicolás Maduro, detained and tried in the United States after an operation ordered by Trump, highlighting differences in international capacity for action.

Europe, in the background compared with U.S. leadership

Zelensky used his address to question the lack of European cohesion and warned that the continent appears "fragmented" in the face of global challenges. "Europe looks lost trying to convince the U.S. president to change," he stated, reinforcing the idea that the center of gravity of decision-making lies today in Washington.

Zelensky's presence in Davos, which initially wasn't planned, materialized after Trump publicly announced the meeting, which once again highlighted the U.S. president's political weight on the international agenda.