Donald Trump said on Thursday that a settlement to end the war in Ukraine was “very close”, after meeting privately at the White House with Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president gave no details of what the two men discussed, and confirmed he had not met the Ukrainian officials who were also in Washington that day.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said the agreement would be a big one and could stretch well beyond Ukraine itself. “It’s going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It’s going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone’s going to be thrilled,” he said. Asked what he and Mr Dmitriev had discussed, he replied: “I can’t tell you what we discussed.”
Mr Dmitriev, the sanctioned chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, had come to the White House for an event hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, who brought Russian and Ukrainian representatives together to mark a six-day local ceasefire she helped broker around Oleshky, the Russian-held town in southern Ukraine. The truce has since expired.
Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is involved in the American peace effort, posted on X the same day arguing that a “broader European security architecture” was needed to address the security concerns of all sides. He said American officials had held “productive and substantive discussions” with Ukraine, NATO and European partners in Brussels on Thursday. NATO confirmed that meeting, saying it “sought to advance a just and sustainable end to the war in Ukraine”, but several European officials told CNN they did not know what Mr Trump was referring to.
Mr Trump also spoke by telephone on Thursday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a key backer of Ukraine. A German government official declined to discuss the call in detail, but said the new ideas put forward by the Trump administration were based on negotiations from recent months.
The meeting comes days before American mediators are due to bring Russian and Ukrainian officials together in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November. Mr Trump has predicted on several occasions that a deal was near, but no terms of any agreement have been published. Mr Putin continues to demand Russian control of the whole of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a reduction in the size of Ukraine’s military and the abandonment of Kyiv’s ambition to join NATO — conditions Kyiv says show he is not serious about a deal. The claim that a settlement is “very close” is the president’s own description and has not been independently confirmed.
Sources: CNN — “Trump teases ‘big, beautiful’ European security deal after meeting Putin envoy” (https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/06/politics/europe-shrugs-astrump-teases-big-beautiful-europe-security-deal-after-meeting-putin-envoy?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_meta) and the Associated Press — “Trump says he met Putin envoy, sees Ukraine deal soon” (https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/4002377-trump-says-he-met-putin-envoy-sees-ukraine-deal-soon?amp)
