From PBS NewsHour.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a meeting with President Donald Trump Monday that while the door is open for a meeting to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine, the next meeting must include a ceasefire.

“Let’s try to put pressure on Russia because the credibility of these efforts we are undertaking today are depending on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations, from [the] next step on,” Merz said.

He added that the next meeting should be a trilateral conversation among Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump has recently backed off his calls for a ceasefire after his meeting Friday with Putin in Alaska. The U.S. president has touted his role in ending wars, but de-emphasized ceasefires. “In the six wars that I have settled, I haven’t had a ceasefire … So if we can do the ceasefire, great, and if we don’t do a ceasefire, because many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us, great points," Trump said in the White House meeting with European leaders.

Merz, Zelenskyy, and other top European leaders met Trump at the White House to present a united front supporting Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Trump met with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

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