U.S. President Donald Trump, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a working session at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 16, 2026.
Thibault Camus | Afp | Getty Images
Donald Trump has pledged further support to Kyiv and urged Moscow to “make a deal” to end the Ukraine war, as the president’s attention turns to Europe amid hopes the Iran conflict is nearing its conclusion.
Trump is meeting with leaders of the wealthy G7 countries in Evian, France, on Tuesday, as the U.S prepares to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran on Friday to bring the nearly four-month war to an end. Talks with representatives of other countries and economies are also scheduled, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The president attended a meeting with G7 leaders plus Zelenskyy on Tuesday morning, which overan by around an hour. The president later held a separate conversation with Zelenskyy and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a bilateral meeting with the Emir of Qatar on Tuesday, Trump said he had already “had a good meeting” with the Ukrainian leader.
“Russia should make a deal,” he told reporters. “Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people, and so has Ukraine.”
Trump added that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, with that conversation covering “the same thing.”
“This was the [war] I thought was going to be the easiest settled,” Trump said, but he added that “there’s a lot of dislike between the two leaders.”
Before returning to the White House for his second presidential term, Trump said he would be able to resolve the Ukraine war in a day.
“We were focused on Iran, that’s going to be in the rearview mirror,” he said on Tuesday as he told reporters that he would meet Zelenskyy again later on in the day.
Labeling the lives lost in the Russia-Ukraine war “ridiculous,” Trump added: “I’m going to do whatever I can.”
Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Tuesday morning that “substantive meetings” were underway.
“The schedule for the day is packed,” he said. “The key focus is to strengthen air defense for Ukraine and advance diplomacy, to make Russia end its war. Peace is needed.”
Trump’s European allies are using the high-stakes G7 talks to push for a renewed American commitment to supporting Ukraine’s war effort and for a diplomatic end to the war.
France currently holds the rotating G7 presidency. In a press briefing ahead of the summit, which enters its second day on Tuesday and will conclude on Wednesday, Macron said a key focus of the talks would be maintaining support for Ukraine.
“Europeans are currently providing almost 100% of the aid to Ukraine,” he said. “It is important that our other G7 partners, and in particular the United States, continue to do their part — at the very least, not weaken their position towards Ukraine.”
In a statement at the G7 summit on Monday evening, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa noted that the EU’s 90-billion-euro ($104.5 billion) loan package to Ukraine covers two-thirds of the country’s financing needs through 2027.
“For the remaining third, we need Ukraine’s partners to step up,” they said. “This will be a topic at this Summit.”
Tensions between Trump and some of the summit attendees have grown in recent months, with Europe and NATO’s refusal to back the U.S. military’s operations in the Middle East drawing Trump’s ire.
Trump also threatened France with huge tariffs over Macron’s rejection of a seat on America’s so-called “Board of Peace” on Gaza. Washington has renewed its tariff threats against France this week, this time over its tech “sales tax.”
European attendees appeared to make efforts to reset transatlantic relations during the summit, which concludes on Wednesday.
Macron and French First Lady Brigitte Macron personally greeted Trump, along with other guests, as he arrived at the event on Monday. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz presented Trump with a German World Cup jersey with “Trump 47” on its back before multilateral talks were closed to the press.
Last year, the U.S. led talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in a bid to bring the war between the two nations to an end.
The talks reached a stalemate after months of diplomacy, with concessions of Ukrainian territory to Russia remaining a sticking point. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last month that no talks were currently underway.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s former foreign minister, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that he did not expect any major developments in G7 talks when it came to negotiating peace.
“With Trump, it’s all personal. If you manage to change his mind or make him take a decision, the system will begin to turn its wheels to deliver,” he said. “Zelenskyy knows all of these people very well, and his approach is very nuanced and differentiated, so I wouldn’t expect any breakthroughs from this G7 meeting.”
Trump’s relationship with Zelenskyy got off to a shaky start upon his return to the White House, with a meeting in the Oval Office publicly exploding into a shouting match in early 2025.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine. In the same year, armed conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists.
