WASHINGTON, D.C.—After meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump changed his stance, stating that the next stage in ending the three-and-a-half-year conflict in Ukraine is an overall peace agreement rather than the ceasefire he has long supported.
Trump said that Putin reaffirmed his desire for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are crucial to the Donbas, in discussions with European partners following Friday’s summit in Alaska. However, Putin seemed amenable to the idea of freezing the front lines in order to break the impasse in two additional areas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
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According to European officials familiar with the calls who spoke on condition of anonymity, the U.S. and Russian presidents were having talks at a U.S. military installation. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has previously opposed ceding the Donbas.
Apart from Trump’s pledge to hold additional meetings, including one with Zelenskyy at the White House on Monday, the summit’s aftermath provided little insight into what will happen next. Those who were briefed on the talks were unsure if Trump agreed with Putin’s ambition for the Donbas, and his direct but evasive speech style only made matters more confusing.
Trump played golf at his Virginia club on Saturday with Fox News anchor Bret Baier and his special envoy Steve Witkoff, but the White House had not yet released a public readout of the calls. Trump’s sudden flip on a ceasefire was the most obvious lesson, as it raised concerns about how peace negotiations might go if strikes persisted.
Trump’s rejection of a ceasefire as a condition for additional talks puts him in line with Putin. The Russian leader has long stated that Moscow wants a long-term solution that considers the interests of the Kremlin and is not interested in a short-term truce.
Trump claims that a peace agreement, not a ceasefire, is his main goal.
Following the calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump stated on social media on Saturday that everyone agreed that a peace agreement—rather than a ceasefire agreement, which frequently fails—is the best way to put an end to the terrible conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump stated that Russia appears ready to conduct the negotiations based on the so-called line of contact rather than the administrative boundaries, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told ZDF television. The comments did not explain how the Donbas problems had been settled.
In the past, Zelenskyy has declined to leave the 30% of the Donetsk region that Ukraine still controls. He claims that would be against the constitution and that the area might be used as a base for future Russian strikes.
Major European leaders praised President Trump’s efforts to halt the slaughter in Ukraine, terminate Russia’s campaign of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace in a statement following the Trump call, but they did not answer whether a peace agreement was better than a ceasefire.
Putin’s perspective on his meeting with Trump
Putin called his discussions with Trump “very frank” on Saturday.
He stated during the follow-up discussion at the Kremlin—a video of which was uploaded to the Kremlin’s Telegram channel—that “we, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military actions.” We want to start using peaceful methods to settle all disputes.
According to Laurie Bristow, the former British ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020, Putin has emerged from international isolation and was not even remotely contested by Trump, who also disregarded an arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court. However, since the US is not a party to the court, it is not required to detain him.
Zelenskyy prepares for a visit at the White House
Despite not being invited to Alaska for the meeting, Zelenskyy claimed to have had a lengthy and meaningful talk with Trump early on Saturday and that on Monday they will go over all the specifics of putting an end to the slaughter and the war.
This will be Zelenskyy’s first trip to the US since Trump publicly chastised him for being impolite during a special meeting at the Oval Office in February.
In addition to confirming the White House meeting, Trump stated that a meeting with President Putin would be scheduled if all went according to plan.
Zelenskyy reaffirmed the significance of including European leaders, who were also absent from the conference, in order to work with America to provide trustworthy security guarantees.
He said, “We also talked about encouraging signs from the U.S. side regarding involvement in ensuring Ukraine’s security.”
The Ukrainian leader did not provide further details, but he has stated in the past that the lack of an American backup caused European partners to halt a plan to station foreign troops in Ukraine in order to thwart Russian aggression.
France, the United Kingdom, and Germany will co-host a video call on Sunday of the coalition of the willing nations that could help monitor and uphold any deal to end fighting, according to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, in an apparent attempt to strengthen Zelenskyy’s hand before the White House meeting.
Europeans demand Ukraine’s security assurances
The leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Finland, and Poland praised the United States’ willingness to offer Ukraine with unwavering security guarantees.
According to their statement, Ukraine will be in charge of making choices on its territory. Forceful changes to international borders are unacceptable.
In an interview with Fox News Channel prior to his departure to Washington, Trump stated that while Zelenskyy might bear some of the responsibility for completing it, European countries would also play a role.
The grim reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon, according to EU foreign policy leader Kaja Kallas, who also pointed out that Moscow continued to assault Ukraine while the delegations were meeting.
Putin keeps dragging out talks in the hopes of getting away with it. She claimed that he left Anchorage without promising to put an end to the murder.
Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are engaged in combat along a front line that is 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) long. Russian forces have increased their gains since the spring and now hold the greatest territory since the war’s beginning.
Trilateral meeting questions
Zelenskyy expressed support for Trump’s suggestion that Russia and the United States meet. According to him, leaders may debate important topics, and a trilateral framework works well for this.
However, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, stated on Russian state television on Saturday that the topic of a potential three-way meeting has not yet been discussed in U.S.-Russian talks.
According to Zelenskyy’s post on X, he urged Trump that “if there is no trilateral meeting or if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war, sanctions should be strengthened.”
Trump has met his match, according to Fiona Hill, his former senior adviser on Russia, who told The Associated Press that Putin is a far more formidable bully than Trump.
Trump has a lot of coercive tools at his disposal to use against the Russian leader, but he doesn’t want to use them, Hill said, adding that he has exhausted his persuasive abilities with Putin.
“Putin wants fragments of Ukraine, and Ukrainians want peace,” she stated. “Very big chunks.
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Burrows reported from London, Leicester from Paris. This report was written by Josh Boak in Washington, Elise Morton in London, and Geir Moulson in Berlin for the Associated Press.
