AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The White House press secretary said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed to President Trump that he would soon meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country Russia invaded.

GEOFF BENNETT: And White House officials say one possible location for the summit is Hungary, led by Viktor Orban, a longtime Putin ally and critic of the Western coalition that's backing Ukraine.

Orban has repeatedly blasted both NATO and the European Union, which Hungary belongs to, for what he calls their overly aggressive support of Ukraine's defense.

Nick Schifrin begins our coverage again tonight.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Eastern Ukraine today, firefighters rushed to Russia's target of choice, a residential apartment building, where not everyone got out in time; 200 miles to the west, the blood-orange sky of a Ukrainian sunrise mixed with the smoke of a city besieged.

Russia bombarded Ukraine once again today, leading Ukrainians, even in Kyiv's quieter streets, to distrust diplomatic efforts to find peace.

VOLODYMYR NOVYTSKYY, Kyiv Resident (through translator): It seems to me there will be some agreement, but I don't think it will be possible to say this is the end of the war.

Even if there is a truce, this enemy will not stop within the borders he has now.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We will give them very good protection, very good security.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yesterday, President Trump promised Ukraine long-term U.S. support.

DONALD TRUMP: We're willing to help them with things, especially probably if you could talk about by fair.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, today, in a phone call with FOX News, President Trump created a new support ceiling.

CHARLIE HURT, FOX News Anchor: What kind of assurances do you feel like you have that going forward and past this Trump administration, it won't be American boots on the ground defending that border?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, you have my assurance.

I'm president.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Even without U.S. troops, Ukraine says the U.S. can help provide security guarantees by selling some $90 billion of weapons and investing in Ukraine's world-leading drone industry.

Already, a coalition of European countries created plans to send troops to Ukraine to help monitor any potential peace deal.

And now European countries will negotiate with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on what exactly the U.S. is willing to provide.

But European officials are resisting Russian demands for Ukraine to hand over its Eastern Donbass region, as President Trump discussed yesterday with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last night: FRIEDRICH MERZ, German Chancellor (through translator): The Russian demand that Kyiv give up the free parts of Donbass is, to put it in perspective, equivalent to the U.S. having to give up Florida.

A sovereign state cannot simply decide something like that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Russian troops and their separatist allies have failed to capture the entire Donbass, despite 11 years of fighting.

Today, Russian troops have momentum, and Russia's often repeated claim it's defending the Donbass' residents, despite launching a war there, will be part of the negotiations, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

SERGEY LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister (through translator): Without respect for Russia's security interests, without full respect for the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people living in Ukraine, there can be no talk of any long-term agreements.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Besides ruling out sending U.S. troops to Ukraine, President Trump also said it would be impossible for Ukraine to get Crimea back.

For a perspective on all the recent diplomatic meetings aiming to end the war in Ukraine, we turn to Pavlo Klimkin.

He was Ukraine's foreign minister from 2014 to 2019.

He's now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is currently in Kyiv.

Pavlo Klimkin, thanks very much.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

So, given President Trump's summits recently in Anchorage with President Putin and in Washington, D.C., with President Zelenskyy and other European leaders, bottom line, do you believe there is a diplomatic path to end Russia's war on Ukraine?

PAVLO KLIMKIN, Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister: Not the war itself, because, from all my experience, I don't believe in Putin and his entourage.

Changing their calculus on Ukraine, it's not about NATO enlargement.

It's not about territory.

It's about the simple point that they don't believe Ukraine does exist in any sense, in the sense of statehood, history, language.

So they won't give up on trying to destroy Ukraine.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And so, if you believe Russia maintains maximalist demands and a maximalist vision when it comes to Ukraine, do you believe this diplomatic effort is even worth it?

PAVLO KLIMKIN: Definitely.

And it's worth trying reaching a sort of cease-fire.

Another dimension for that is a new European security architecture, Europeans who should be, for me, present in any kind of security commitments and better security guarantees, but unfortunately we are not there.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, when it comes to those security commitments, of course, European officials have been working on what they have called the coalition of the willing, sending troops, sending weapons, sending support to Ukraine.

But the question now is how far the United States will go to participate in those security guarantees.

And, today, President Trump ruled out U.S. troops to Ukraine.

But how important is it that the U.S. participate in those security guarantees, both for Ukraine to be able to defend itself and also for Zelenskyy to be able to sell to Ukrainians any package that he's going to need to sell?

PAVLO KLIMKIN: It's absolutely critical.

And the Europeans need a kind of U.S. backstop, U.S. support.

Without that, the whole idea, not only on security guarantees, but on security commitments is not going to happen.

United States' contribution is absolutely critical to any successful attempt to get out a real, sustainable cease-fire.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The other aspect, the other major aspect of the conversations here in Washington yesterday were about the map, Russia's demands that Ukraine give up the parts of the Donbass, the parts of the Donetsk province that Ukraine still holds and that Russia has failed to capture, despite 11 years of war.

First question here, why is the Donbass so important to the future of Ukraine?

PAVLO KLIMKIN: For us, it's about security, because we have all kinds of defense lines there.

It's, of course, about our emotions, because our guys gave pretty much everything on Donbass.

The idea to swap Donbass with something else would enact a wave of destabilization through Ukraine.

This war is about where Ukraine belongs.

So it's really fundamental to start with credible security guarantees and after that go on with any kind of discussions with Putin.

So, for me, the real point, the kind of starting point for the discussion should be a sort of understanding among us, our American partners and our European partners about security.

And, after that, we can discuss everything else.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Pavlo Klimkin, former foreign minister of Ukraine, thank you very much.

PAVLO KLIMKIN: Thanks a lot, Nick.