Zelenskyy to meet Trump tomorrow as Putin offers to relax some territorial claims in exchange for Donetsk
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the Alaska summit with US President Donald Trump, demanded that Ukraine withdraw from the eastern Donetsk region as a condition for ending the war, telling him he can freeze the rest of the frontline (in Kerson and Zaporizhzhia) if his core demands are met, the Financial Times reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly rejected the demand. Now, Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump on Monday in Washington as the US President has shifted to saying an overall peace agreement — and not a ceasefire — is the next step in ending the 3 1/2-year-old war.
Trump’s abrupt reversal, aligning himself with a position held by Putin, came in a social media post on Saturday, hours after they concluded the Alaska talks that produced no agreement to halt the fighting.
Putin has long said that Moscow was not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes the Kremlin’s interests into account.
After calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump posted that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire, saying they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.”
Trump and Ukraine’s European allies had been calling for a ceasefire ahead of any negotiations. Trump’s statement that a peace agreement should be reached before a ceasefire appears to indicate Trump’s thinking is “shifting towards Putin,” an approach that would allow Moscow to keep fighting while negotiating, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
Trump, who also held calls with European leaders Saturday, confirmed the White House meeting and said that “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
Trump rolled out the red carpet on Friday for Putin, who was in the US for the first time in a decade and since the start of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But he gave little concrete detail afterward of what was discussed. Trump had warned ahead of the summit of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war.
Zelenskyy reiterated the importance of involving European leaders, who also were not at the summit.
“It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said. “We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
In their statement after speaking to Trump, major European leaders said they were ready to work with Trump and Zelenskyy toward “a trilateral summit with European support.”
Russian officials and media struck a largely positive tone after the summit, with some describing it as a symbolic end to Putin’s isolation in the West.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, praised the summit as a breakthrough in restoring high-level dialogue between Moscow and Washington, describing the talks as “calm, without ultimatums and threats.”
Putin has “broken out of international isolation” and back on the world stage as one of two global leaders, an analyst said.
Melania writes to Putin about abducted kids
- US President Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said.
- President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska.
- Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
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