War in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a ceasefire from the White House

In the presence of Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders, the French president also called for Europeans to be involved in discussions between the United States, Russia and Ukraine.

Shortly after the American president ruled that a ceasefire was unnecessary, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz confronted him. "Requesting a truce or a ceasefire, at least to stop the killings, as we have discussed, is a necessity," the French head of state pleaded on Monday, August 18, at the White House, while the cameras were on.

In the presence of Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders , the German Chancellor also insisted on the need for a truce before negotiations on a peace agreement on Ukraine. "I cannot imagine that the next meeting will take place without a ceasefire, let's work towards this and try to put pressure on Russia."

Emmanuel Macron also called for Europeans to be involved in discussions between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine once Donald Trump has managed to bring Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky around the same table. The Russian president "agrees that Russia should accept security guarantees for Ukraine, and that is one of the central points that we must take into account," Donald Trump also declared at the start of the meeting.

Earlier Monday evening, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky held a one-on-one meeting. They also held a calm joint press conference, nearly six months after their particularly heated exchange . "I think we had a very good conversation with President Trump, it was really the best—well, sorry, maybe the best will be in the future—but it was really good, and we talked about extremely sensitive things," the Ukrainian president said.