WASHINGTON, Aug 19, (AP): US President Donald Trump said Monday he's begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a pathway to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while affirming that the US would back European security guarantees aimed at preventing Moscow from reinvading its neighbor once the current conflict ends.

Details of the security guarantees and Trump’s efforts to arrange peace talks were still evolving as an extended meeting among Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders wrapped up at the White House. But as they emerged from their talks, the leaders expressed guarded optimism that Trump could be finding momentum in his quest to fulfill his campaign promise of ending the grinding war.

The "most important” outcome of the meeting was the "US commitment to work with us on providing security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters. Trump said he would forge ahead with arrangements for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. He spoke by phone with Putin during Monday's talks with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy as well as the president of the European Commission and head of NATO.

The developments come amid a significant measure of trepidation on the continent that Trump is pressing Ukraine to make concessions that will only further embolden Putin after the US leader hosted the Russian president for an Alaska summit last week. "I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump said in a social media post.

"After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.” It was not clear if Putin has fully signed on to such talks. Russia state news agency Tass cited Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov saying Putin and Trump "spoke in favor” of continuing direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

Ushakov said they also discussed "the idea of raising the level of the direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.” Zelenskyy told reporters following the White House meeting that if Russia does "not demonstrate a will to meet, then we will ask the United States to act accordingly.”