Zelenskyi, Trump and Macron hold trilateral meeting on G7 summit sidelines
Following the talks, the three presidents joined a joint working session with other G7 leaders, where Russia's war against Ukraine was a central topic.
According to Western media reports, other summit participants had to wait nearly an hour before Zelenskyi, Macron, and Trump entered the meeting hall.
The trilateral meeting came as Kyiv intensified diplomatic efforts to arrange direct talks between President Zelenskyi and Vladimir Putin. At the same time, the US-mediated peace process has effectively been frozen since February, with Washington's attention increasingly shifting toward the conflict involving Iran.
Before the main summit events began, Emmanuel Macron also held a brief bilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
According to CNN, citing the Élysée Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron, as host of the summit, invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to participate in parallel events, hoping that his presence would help strengthen support for Ukraine among the G7 nations.
A key element of these efforts was securing the involvement of US President Donald Trump in the process.
CNN reported that the possibility of a meeting between Zelenskyi and Trump was the first issue Macron raised while greeting the Ukrainian leader at the Royal Hotel, where the summit was taking place.
"So, first of all, do you have a bilateral meeting scheduled … with President Trump?" Macron asked.
Trump's official schedule did not include a separate bilateral meeting with Zelenskyi. However, informal and impromptu meetings between world leaders are common during international summits.
Later, after meeting with President Zelenskyi, Trump told reporters that the talks had been productive. He noted that the war was causing heavy losses on both sides and that thousands of soldiers were being killed every month.
"Russia has to make a deal. It has lost a tremendous number of people, and so has Ukraine. It's absolute madness," the US president said.
Trump also revealed that he had spoken by phone with Vladimir Putin the previous day.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyi shared a photo on social media from the G7 leaders' session, showing him seated opposite Donald Trump. Seated alongside them were US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov.
Following this, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is scheduled to hold a series of bilateral meetings with summit participants, including:
Additional meetings are also expected, with further details to be announced closer to the scheduled times.
As Rubryka previously reported, on June 14, Zelenskyi and Trump held a phone conversation lasting approximately 30-35 minutes. During that call, the two leaders agreed to discuss a broader range of issues during their meeting at the G7 summit.
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18 of June 2026
