 "US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands during a press conference after their lunch meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on December 28, 2025. Reuters File")
US President Donald Trump on Thursday described his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Davos as “good,” while acknowledging that there is still “a ways to go” toward ending the war with Russia.
“The war has to end,” Trump said as he emerged from the discussion.
“We hope it’s going to end. There are a lot of people being killed,” he added.
Trump declined to provide details of the closed-door conversation with Zelenskyy but told CNN that the two did not discuss his recently formed “Board of Peace.”
Trump officials are scheduled to meet next with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“It’s an ongoing process,” Trump said. “Everybody wants to have the war end.”
On Wednesday, Trump had announced that he is going to meet with Zelenskyy in Davos, but the Ukrainian leader was still in Kyiv, dealing with the national emergency caused by relentless Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said earlier this week that he will come to Davos only if “real results for Ukraine” are on the table.
“No one needs empty politics or talks with no results,” Politico quoted him as saying.
Ukraine had hoped to sign either a $800 billion prosperity deal or security guarantees with the US president, but the Davos conference has been overtaken by the tensions over Greenland.
With inputs from agencies