Trump says after Zelensky meeting Russia should make peace deal

President Trump said Tuesday that Russia should make a deal with Ukraine to end its four-year invasion of its neighbor to the west.

“Russia should make a deal. Russia’s lost tremendous amounts of people, and so has Ukraine,” Trump said at a Group of Seven (G7) meeting in France, alongside Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar.

Earlier in the morning, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in France. The president told reporters alongside the Qatari emir that he will meet with Zelensky again later Tuesday.

Zelensky and Trump also spoke Sunday, with the Ukrainian leader saying after their conversation that they focused on the U.S. administration’s support of a “dignified peace” in Ukraine. Zelensky also previewed his trip to France, noting that he is counting on additional military aid from partner nations.

“It will be an important week, and we are counting on results,” he said. “First and foremost, of course, air defense for Ukraine, political agreements that will bolster our defenses here in Ukraine, there will be the opening of a cluster — a cluster for Ukraine and Moldova — and steps toward a lasting peace.”

During the G7 meeting, Zelensky has met with a host of world leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The Ukrainian president said Tuesday that he and Merz discussed defense support for Ukraine, including strengthening his country’s air defense system.

Russia has launched multiple strikes on Kyiv in recent weeks, including by using an Oreshnik ballistic missile — an intermediate-range weapon that can carry multiple warheads and travel at hypersonic speed.

Maksym Maksymov, the head of Ukraine’s effort to bring back children kidnapped by Russia, also recently asked the U.S. government for more assistance on that front.

“There’s a lot of sense of urgency, and we do understand that time is not on our side,” he told The Hill last week, before meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

In an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 4, Zelensky said he received a report that more than 30,000 Russian soldiers were either killed or seriously wounded on the front lines in May.

Trump, who said he spoke to Putin on Sunday, also lamented the death toll from the lengthy conflict. The president said the two countries lost 35,000 soldiers combined last month.

“They just keep [going] and fighting, losing soldiers,” Trump said Tuesday. “They lose so many soldiers. … Not since World War II has anything like this happened.”

The president added, “Young people, they’re just starting their lives. They go to this front and they get blown up, and Ukraine is losing a lot of people too. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. So yeah, I’m going to do whatever I can.”