French President Emmanuel Macron hosted trilateral talks with Zelensky and Trump at the Elysee Palace on December 7, nearly three years after Moscow's invasion and before Trump's inauguration in January.

"Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives have been wasted so needlessly, too many families have been destroyed and if this continues it could turn into something much bigger and much worse," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth.

Zelensky's meeting with Trump was his first face-to-face encounter with the mogul-turned-politician since his election victory in November. | BGNES