President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House on Monday in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he has begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump said in a social media posting following lengthy talks at the White House on Monday with Zelenskyy and European leaders. “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.”

Trump had said Monday during talks with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and European leaders that a potential ceasefire and who gets Ukrainian territory seized by Russia should be hashed out during a face-to-face meeting between the warring countries’ two leaders.

The talks at the White House came days after Trump hosted Russian President Putin for a summit at a U.S. military base in Alaska in which he tilted toward Putin’s demands that Ukraine make concessions over land seized by Russia, which now controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

“We’re going to let the president go over and talk to the president and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said during his meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders.

Trump also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as he met with Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as the president of the European Commission and the head of NATO.

Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU leaders.

“They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Trump said. “I think its very important to get the deal done.”

Speaking Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the idea of a possible NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Such a scenario could see further escalation and “unpredictable consequences,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned.

Trump’s engagement with Zelenskyy had a strikingly different feel to their last Oval Office meeting in February. It was a disastrous moment that led to Trump abruptly ending talks with the Ukrainian delegation, and temporarily pausing some aid for Kyiv, after he and Vice President JD Vance complained that Zelenskyy had shown insufficient gratitude for U.S. military assistance.

Zelenskyy at the start of the meeting presented a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for Trump’s wife, Melania. Trump hand-delivered a letter to Putin from the U.S. first lady urging him to consider the children impacted by the conflict and bring an end to the brutal 3 1/2 year war.

Trump at one point needled Zelenskyy over Ukraine delaying elections. They had been scheduled for last year but were delayed because of the ongoing Russian invasion. Ukrainian law does not allow presidential elections to be held when martial law is in effect.

Trump joked that a similar circumstance wouldn’t play well in the U.S.

Monday’s hastily assembled meeting came after Trump met in Alaska on Friday with Putin. After that meeting, Trump said the onus is now on Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land that he said could end the war.

Trump said he plans to talk to Putin after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders.

European leaders are still looking for a concrete details about what U.S. involvement would be toward building a security guarantee for Ukraine.

European officials confirmed that Trump told them Putin is still seeking control of the entire Donbas region, even though Ukraine still controls a meaningful share of it.