“We’ll let you know that, maybe later today,” Trump said during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

His openness to allowing American troops onto the ground in Ukraine could make for a major shift, as Ukraine considers security guarantees to be critical for any eventual peace deal with Russia.

Trump stated repeatedly that Europe would take the lead in securing the peace but that the US would be involved.

“They are first line of defense, because they’re there, Europe. But we’re going to help them out. Also, we’ll be involved,” he noted.

“We have people waiting in another room, right now, they’re all here from Europe. Biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump added a bit later. “I think it’s very important to get the deal done.”

Trump stressed if there were a peace deal, it would hold.

“I think if we can get to peace, it’s going to work. I have no doubt about it,” he continued.

Trump said that regardless of how the meetings with Zelensky and European leaders turns out, American support for Ukraine will remain.

Trump was asked by a reporter: “Is this the end of the road for American support for Ukraine. Is today’s meeting deal or no deal?”

He responded, “I can never say that. It’s never the end of the road. People are being killed and we want to stop that. So, I would not say it’s the end of the road.”

Trump said he likes “the concept” of a ceasefire but he downplayed his earlier call for one, advocating instead for a broader peace deal.

“I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason: because you’d stop killing people immediately, as opposed to in two weeks, or one week, or whatever it takes,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while meeting with Zelensky.

“We’re working on a peace deal while they’re fighting, they have to fight. I wish they could stop. I’d like them to stop, but strategically, that could be a disadvantage for one side or the other,” Trump added.

“I can also understand strategically, why, well, you know, one country or the other wouldn’t want it. You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild. And you know, maybe they don’t want that.”

Trump also stated he “didn’t do any ceasefires” in other conflicts that he’s claimed to resolve. Yet he touted his efforts in brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May.

Trump also stressed that Ukraine will not join the NATO military bloc but will receive protection from Washington.

“No NATO but we’ll protect them.”

Zelensky has been summoned to the White House for a meeting on Monday to discuss the potential peace proposal. According to reports, the plan could involve Kiev giving up its remaining positions in Donbass while freezing battle lines elsewhere in exchange for a halt to hostilities. Zelensky has previously rejected such terms.

Zelensky “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Sunday.

“Remember how it started. No getting back Obama-given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” he added.

Trump was referring to the events of 2014, when the administration of then-US President Barack Obama did not intervene after Crimea voted to reunite with Russia following a Western-backed coup in Kiev.

The US president argues concessions may be needed for peace, but Zelensky insists Crimea and other regions remain Ukrainian and has rejected any compromise.

The meeting comes shortly after Trump’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, their first face-to-face encounter since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Both leaders voiced cautious optimism that discussions could help move toward a resolution of the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that any settlement should see Ukraine abandoning its NATO ambitions, undergoing demilitarization and denazification, and recognizing the new territorial reality on the ground, including the status of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, all of which have voted to become parts of Russia.

Putin stated any settlement must address Russia’s concerns, adding that restoring a fair balance in Europe is essential for lasting peace.

On Sunday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News that Washington and its European allies were considering offering security guarantees to Ukraine outside the framework of NATO.

“You can’t have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions – that’s a fact,” the Trump administration’s top diplomat said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

“That’s true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it’s just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender. So both sides are going to have to make concessions.”

Rubio stated the recent talks in Alaska between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump toward ending the war had “made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement – but there remains some big areas of disagreement”.

“We’re still a long ways off,” Rubio added.

“We’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement. We’re not at the edge of one. But I do think progress was made and towards one.”

He declined to go into specific areas of agreement or disagreement, or outline what Trump has described as “severe consequences” for Russia if its aggression toward Ukraine continued.

“Ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear – there are going to be consequences,” Rubio remarked.

“But we’re trying to avoid that. And the way we’re trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities.”

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin agreed at the summit to allow the US and Europe to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of any peace deal.

In an interview on CNN, Witkoff said the US had won the concession that “the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO”. He added the concession was “game-changing”.

Rubio agreed that no agreement was possible without both sides – including that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – being at the table.

“You’re not going to reach a ceasefire or a peace agreement in a meeting in which only one side is represented,” Rubio told ABC News.

“That’s why it’s important to bring both leaders together – and that’s the goal here.”

Rubio confirmed that a ceasefire – or, as Trump now reportedly prefers, a straight-to-peace deal – “is going to be difficult”, despite the White House’s openly demanding one.

The war, he said, has been “going on for three and a half years”.

“You have two very entrenched sides, and we’re going to have to continue to work and chip away at it,” Rubio noted.

Separately, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rubio said a ceasefire was “not off the table”, though he added: “It was agreed by all that the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal.”

He said the US had advocated for a ceasefire, but “unfortunately, the Russians as of now have not agreed to that.

“But the ideal here, what we’re aiming for here is not a ceasefire,” he continued, adding, “What we ultimately are aiming for is an end to this.”

Soon after Rubio told Meet the Press that “no one is pushing” Ukraine to give up territory, Trump shared a Truth Social post from a supporter that said: “Ukraine must be willing to lose some territory to Russia otherwise the longer the war goes on they will keep losing even more land!!”

Nonetheless, Rubio said he doubted that a new set of western sanctions on Russia would force Moscow to agree to any deal.

“The Russian economy has basically been turned into a full-time wartime economy,” Rubio told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday – while pointing out that Russia is estimated to have lost 20,000 soldiers in the last month alone.

“That just tells you the price they’re willing to pay,” Rubio added.

“Not saying any of this is admirable – I’m saying that this is the reality of the war that we’re facing. It’s become attrition, in some ways. It’s a meat grinder, and they just have more meat to grind.”

He also denied that Trump, as critics claim, had merely given the aggressor in the conflict, Putin, an unwarranted place on the world stage.

“Putin is already on the world stage,” Rubio stated on ABC News.

“The guy’s conducting a full scale war in Ukraine. That doesn’t mean he’s right about the war. That doesn’t mean he’s justified about the war. You’re not going to end a war between Russia and Ukraine without dealing with Putin. That’s just common sense. So people can say whatever they want.”