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Trump Participates in a Bilateral Lunch with the President of Ukraine

October 17, 2025 · The White House · 0:37:34

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine for a bilateral lunch at the White House on October 17, 2025. “It’s an honor to be with a very strong leader, a man who has been through a lot and a man who I’ve gotten to know very well and we’ve gotten along really very well,” he said. “We had a big call yesterday, as you know, with President Putin and we’ll be talking about it… I think we’re making great progress.”

President Zelenskyy congratulated the President on the Middle East ceasefire — “you did it” — and called it “a momentum to finish Russia’s war against Ukraine,” adding: “We understand that Putin is not ready. I think not ready, but I think that I’m confident that with your help we can stop this war and we really need it.” He reported meetings that day with major American energy companies “ready to help us” after Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, and with American military companies on air defense. The President framed the lunch’s work as the follow-through on his Putin call: “It began with Alaska where I think certain guidelines were discussed and we want to see if we can get this done… So many people have died in this war and we’re going to get it ended.”

Why it matters

The lunch is the working session between the President’s Putin call and the Budapest track — Zelenskyy in the room the next day, asking that the Middle East momentum be applied to Ukraine — recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

The “great progress” characterization and the energy/air-defense company meetings, as stated by the two presidents at the lunch, are recorded here against the negotiation’s next steps.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Lunch with the President of Ukraine,” The White House, October 17, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the President and by President Zelenskyy at the lunch.