US President Donald Trump has predicted a "very big" deal with Russia involving not only the Ukraine war but "all of Europe", after meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy at the White House.
Trump revealed on Thursday that he had an unscheduled meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, who was at the White House for talks with Ukrainian officials hosted by US First Lady Melania Trump.
"I can't tell you what I discussed. But I'm just telling you, it's going to be an agreement, it's going to be a big agreement," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"It's going to be very big. It's going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It's going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone's going to be thrilled."
Trump said he had not met with Ukrainian officials who were also at the White House on Thursday.
Melania Trump had earlier called for a new, "more enduring" ceasefire in Ukraine as she hosted a rare meeting between officials from the war-torn country and Russia at the White House.
Trump said the meeting and a localised six-day truce in the starvation-hit Ukrainian city of Oleshky that the US First Lady announced last month could be a stepping stone to a wider deal.
Abu Dhabi talks
Meanwhile, US envoy Jared Kushner posted on X that US, NATO, Ukraine and European partners held productive and substantive talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine ahead of discussions next week in Abu Dhabi involving Kiev and Moscow.
Also on Thursday, the NATO-Ukraine Council held an extraordinary meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels to discuss Ukraine’s urgent defence needs ahead of winter.
According to a statement by Ukraine’s Mission to NATO, the meeting was chaired by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, with Ukrainian officials Sergiy Boyev, who attended in person, and Serhii Sobko, who joined via video conference, briefing allied representatives.
"It is essential to mobilise all partners to the fullest extent, accelerate new decisions, and translate previously announced commitments into concrete deliveries of equipment or transfers of funds," the statement said.
The mission said the meeting was particularly important ahead of the upcoming Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting on November 17, under the leadership of the UK and Germany.
"Now was precisely the time to provide partners with the latest information on the scale and nature of Russian threats, and to present Ukraine’s needs and priority expectations — both to 'fight tonight' and to 'fight tomorrow,' meaning Ukraine's requirements for next year," the statement said.
