Western leaders gathered at the White House on Monday, August 18, 2025, for talks aimed at structuring a path toward negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting President Donald Trump alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. After an opening session in the East Room, the group moved to the Oval Office for additional discussion; there was no joint communiqué, but the leaders characterized the meeting as a substantive step toward arranging direct talks between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.