U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy participate in a working session of the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 16, 2026.
Thibaut Camus | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump has promised more aid to Kiev and urged the Russian government to “make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, as the president’s attention turns to Europe amid hopes that the Iran conflict is nearing an end.
President Trump is meeting with leaders of wealthy Group of Seven nations in Evian, France, on Tuesday, as the United States prepares to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iran on Friday to end the nearly four-month war. Meetings are also planned with representatives of other countries and economies, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The president attended a meeting with G7 leaders and Zelenskiy on Tuesday morning, which lasted about an hour. The president then spoke separately with Zelensky and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
President Trump told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s bilateral meeting with the emir of Qatar that he had already had “a good meeting” with the Ukrainian leader.
“Russia should agree,” he told reporters. “Russia has lost a huge number of people, and so has Ukraine.”
Trump added that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday and that the conversation covered “the same content.”
“This was the war that I thought would be the easiest to resolve,” Trump said, but added that there was “a lot of animosity between the two leaders.”
Before returning to the White House to campaign for a second term, President Trump said the Ukraine war could be resolved in one day.
“We were focused on Iran. That will be in the rearview mirror,” he told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he planned to meet with Zelenskiy again later in the day.
President Trump called the lives lost in the Russia-Ukraine war “ridiculous,” adding: “We’re going to do whatever we can.”
Zelenskiy 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 force Russia to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and move forward with diplomacy to end the war. We need peace.”
President Trump’s European allies are using the high-stakes G7 talks to press for renewed U.S. commitment to supporting the Ukraine war and ending it diplomatically.
France currently holds the rotating G7 Presidency. At a press conference ahead of the summit, which enters its second day on Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday, Macron said the main focus of the talks was to maintain support for Ukraine.
“Europe is currently providing almost 100% of aid to Ukraine,” he said. “It is important that other G7 partners, especially the United States, continue to play their roles, or at least not weaken their positions on Ukraine.”
In a statement at the G7 summit on Monday night, 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 for Ukraine will cover two-thirds of the country’s financing needs until 2027.
“For the remaining third, Ukraine’s partners need to step up,” they said. “This will be on the agenda at this summit.”
Tensions between Trump and some summit attendees have escalated in recent months as Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have angered Trump over their refusal to support U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
Trump also threatened France with huge tariffs over Macron’s refusal to allow the United States to serve on the so-called peace commission in Gaza. The U.S. government renewed its tariff threat against France this week, this time over a high-tech “sales tax.”
European attendees appeared to be seeking to reset transatlantic relations during the summit, which concludes on Wednesday.
President Macron and French First Lady Brigitte Macron personally greeted President Trump, along with other guests, as he arrived at the event on Monday. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz presented President Trump with a Germany World Cup jersey with “Trump 47” written on the back before the multilateral talks were closed to the press.
Last year, the United States led talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations to end the war between the two countries.
After months of diplomacy, negotiations reached a stalemate, with concessions of Ukrainian territory to Russia remaining a sticking point. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last month that there were currently no negotiations underway.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that he does not expect much progress in G7 talks on peace negotiations.
“With Trump, it’s all personal. If you can change his mind or get him to make a decision, the system will start turning its wheels to make it happen,” he said. “Mr. Zelenskiy knows all of these people very well, and his approach is very nuanced and differentiated, so we can’t expect any kind of breakthrough to come out of this G7 meeting.”
The relationship between Trump and Zelensky got off to a rocky start after returning to the White House, with a meeting in the Oval Office degenerating into a public shouting match in early 2025.
Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine. That same year, armed conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists.
