The leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, NATO, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Washington, D.C., in August 2025, presenting a united front in opposition to Russian aggression in Ukraine. The summit took place three days after U.S. President Donald J. Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an Alaskan military base to discuss ways to end the war.
The August 18 meeting involving the European leaders took place at the White House, where the participants agreed that Ukraine would continue to receive their support in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. Trump made clear that the U.S. stands with its European allies and Ukraine, which it has supported with tens of billions of dollars in military aid since the beginning of the war in 2022. “We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure,” Trump said of Ukraine, adding that European nations would take the lead on the security arrangements with substantial U.S. support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the unified support was crucial to his country’s survival. He welcomed a security guarantee, while acknowledging that details remain scarce and more discussions need to take place. “We spoke about it, and we will speak more about (a) security guarantee. This is very important that United States gives such (a) strong signal and is ready for security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said, according to a transcript of the meeting. U.S. and NATO have sustained Ukraine in its military effort. Since 2022, the U.S. has provided $128 billion in direct aid to Ukraine, according to a July 2025 calculation by the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C., think tank. European countries also have delivered billions in aid to Kiev.
The desire to end the killing, which has caused up to 1.5 million casualties, was a dominant theme of the August 18 meeting. “Everybody around this table is in favor of peace,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. Trump said he had asked Putin to meet with Zelenskyy and himself to find a way to end the fighting. After the meeting, Macron announced a possible summit site of Geneva, Switzerland, and Swiss authorities said they were willing to host the gathering.
The White House summit came the first business day after a meeting between Trump and Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. As Trump and Putin walked on the tarmac, they paused to watch a flyover of a B-2 stealth bomber and F-35 fighter jets. The two leaders met for nearly three hours and emerged saying they had made progress.