Given the treatment he received last time, there was nervousness for Volodymyr Zelenskyy when plans for another White House visit were announced last week.
But this time, the Ukrainian president had support.
In the hours after the meeting was scheduled, an assortment of top European leaders — all of whom have cultivated warm relationships with Donald Trump — said they would fly to Washington too.
Top of their minds was Trump's recent Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, which failed to produce a ceasefire deal and prompted Trump to abandon his commitment to one.
They have also been concerned about the prospect of "land swaps" that Trump had been talking about in recent days.
Here's what happened during several rounds of talks over several hours in the White House on Monday.
A phone call to Putin and the promise of a meeting
Before the meeting, Trump said he was planning to call Putin at its conclusion.
"We're going to have a phone call right after these meetings today, and we may or may not have a trilateral," he said.
And he followed through, reportedly speaking to Putin for about 40 minutes, during which the proposal for a trilateral became a bilateral.
"I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy," Trump wrote on social media.
"After that meeting takes place, we will have a trilat, which would be the two presidents, plus myself."
Given Putin's past resistance to meeting Zelenskyy, and his track record of moving goalposts, there's some scepticism about whether the meeting will actually happen.
Finland's President Alexander Stubb told Finnish reporters it was worth remembering Putin was rarely worth trusting.
"Now we'll see whether Putin has enough courage for two and three-way meetings or whether he's playing for time," Stubb said, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the leaders agreed the meeting would take place within two weeks, Reuters reported.
The last direct talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Türkiye in June. Putin declined Zelenskyy's public invitation to meet him face-to-face there and sent a low-level delegation instead.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in audio remarks on Telegram on Monday that Trump and Putin had discussed "the possibility of raising the level of representatives from the Ukrainian and Russian sides … participating in the mentioned direct negotiations".
Despite talk of 'land swaps', Zelenskyy says 'no unacceptable decisions' were made
For days, Trump had been saying "land swaps" would need to be discussed, first in Alaska with Putin, and then in Washington with Zelenskyy.
On Monday, as Trump welcomed Europe's most powerful people into the East Room of the White House, he did something he doesn't usually do and read prepared remarks.
As he read from the page, he said: "We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact.
"That means the war zone, the war lines that are pretty obvious," he said.
"Pretty sad to look at them."
It set the stage for what many had feared — that Trump would spend Monday pressuring his Ukrainian counterpart into ceding territory for the sake of a deal.
In the end, it appears the US is letting Ukraine and Russia have that conversation themselves at the bilateral meeting.
Zelenskyy said he had a long conversation with Trump about territory, and that territorial issues would be decided between Ukraine and Russia.
He was asked if there was anything discussed at Monday's meeting that he could not agree to, and he said:
"It's a discussion. It's a dialogue. Unacceptable decisions were not made."
French President Emmanuel Macron said there had been no discussion with the European leaders about Russia and Ukraine swapping land, French newspaper Le Monde reported.
"We did not discuss this topic at all today," the French president said.
"And for two reasons. First, the priority is security guarantees, and second, we said: 'This is what must be discussed bilaterally and trilaterally.'"
[map]Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he could not agree to any deal that cedes territory to Russia.
Russia is calling for Ukraine to cede significant swathes of territory that Kyiv controls — a proposal that Ukraine's leaders have given no indication they are entertaining.
While there is plenty of room to negotiate with something like the details of security guarantees, when it comes to redrawing the map of Ukraine, there is likely much less room to move.
US will 'coordinate' security with 'coalition of the willing'
One of the key issues discussed was security guarantees for Ukraine — that is, commitments of military help if Russia breaks any future peace deal.
Trump said Russia had agreed that the US could provide such guarantees, confirming comments made at the weekend by special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff had suggested that could mean "Article 5-like protection" for Ukraine, referring to the NATO agreement that an attack on one member should be considered an attack on them all.
After Monday's meeting, Trump said security guarantees would be "provided" by Europe, "with a coordination with the United States".
Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said an agreement on security guarantees was one of two material outcomes from Monday's meeting (the other being the plan for a future bilateral meeting).
Sir Keir described it as an agreement that the "coalition of the willing" of 30 countries, including Australia, would now work with the US to coordinate those guarantees.
"We have already commissioned our teams to do the detailed further work on that," Sir Keir said.
Zelenskyy told a post-meeting press conference: "All of this will somehow be formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days."
He said the security guarantees could include a $US90 billion ($139 billion) package of US weapons, including aircraft and air defence systems.
Ukraine's first lady wrote a letter to Melania Trump
Zelenskyy arrived at the White House with a letter from his wife.
It was addressed to, and seemingly inspired by, first lady Melania Trump, after she penned her own letter to Putin.
The letter raised the plight of children and told Putin he could protect them "with a stroke of the pen". Trump reportedly handed it to Putin during the Alaska talks.
In the White House, Zelenskyy gave Trump a letter from Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska.
"It's not to you, to your wife," Zelenskyy said.
The return of children abducted from Ukraine is one of several conditions for a peace deal outlined by Zelenskyy.
More than 19,000 Ukrainian children had been deported to Russia by April this year, according to a Yale University research project, which noted the actual number was likely significantly higher. Funding for the tracking was terminated along with other foreign aid cuts earlier this year.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen thanked Trump for bringing up the issue.
"As a mother and grandmother, every single child has to go back to its family," she said.
"This should be one of our main priorities also, in these negotiations, to make sure that the children come back to Ukraine, to their families."
Trump later wrote on social media he was discussing "the massive worldwide problem of missing children" with von der Leyen.
"This is, likewise, a big subject with my wife, Melania.
"It is a subject at the top of all lists, and the world will work together to solve it, hopefully bringing them home to their families."
A far friendlier Oval Office press conference than last time
The day began with what's become a familiar ritual when the US president hosts foreign leaders.
Trump invited the White House press pool inside for a joint pre-meeting press conference.
The sight of Zelenskyy seated next to Trump in the Oval Office triggered memories of the infamous blow-up that took place in the same spot six months ago.
But this time, the tone was far friendlier. "It's an honour to have the president of Ukraine with us," Trump said. "Thank you very much for being here."
Zelenskyy — no doubt mindful of the "ungrateful" criticism he copped last time — thanked Trump four times in the first 10 seconds of his remarks.
"Thank you for your invitation and thank you very much for your efforts … to stop killings and stop this war."
His attire was notable — this time, he wore an all-black suit rather than the combat-style clothing he usually wears.
Conservative reporter Brian Glenn — who took Zelenskyy to task for not wearing a suit during his February visit — told Zelenskyy he looked "fabulous" on Monday.
"That's the one that attacked you last time," Trump told Zelenskyy, who pointed out Glenn was wearing the same suit he wore last time.
"I changed, and you are not," Zelenskyy said, one of several light-hearted moments in the otherwise serious but civil event before the cameras.
