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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should make a 
deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and 
they’re not”, after a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have 
demanded more Ukrainian land. After the two leaders met in Alaska on 
Friday, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Putin had 
offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv ceded all of Donetsk, the 
industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets, a source familiar 
with the matter said.

Zelensky rejected the demand, the source said. Russia already controls a 
fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which 
it first entered in 2014.

Trump also said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought 
without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now 
with U.S. support, have demanded.

Zelensky said he would meet Trump in Washington on Monday, while Kyiv’s 
European allies welcomed Trump’s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and 
tighten sanctions on Russia.

Analysis: Despite Trump’s impatience to broker a settlement in Russia-
Ukraine War, Putin presents some obstacles to peace

Trump’s meeting with Putin, the first U.S.-Russia summit since Moscow 
launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lasted just 
three hours.

“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

His various comments on the meeting mostly aligned with the public 
positions of Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause - 
but that this will be complex because positions are “diametrically 
opposed”.

Russia has been gradually advancing for months. The war - the deadliest in 
Europe for 80 years - has killed or wounded well over a million people from 
both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to 
analysts. Before the summit, Trump had said he would not be happy unless a 
ceasefire was agreed on.

Ukrainian women give birth in bomb shelters as country faces plummeting 
population

But afterwards he said that, after Monday’s talks with Zelensky, “if all 
works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin”. Those 
talks will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in 
February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Zelensky a brutal 
public dressing-down. Putin signalled no movement in Russia’s long-held 
demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv’s desired membership in the NATO 
alliance.

He made no mention in public of meeting Zelensky, which the Ukrainian 
leader said he was willing to do. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said a three-
way summit had not been discussed.

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In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and 
Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and 
had “largely agreed”.

“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to 
agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ’no’.”

Asked what he would advise Zelensky to do, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”

“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.

Zelensky has consistently said he cannot concede territory without changes 
to Ukraine’s constitution, and Kyiv sees Donetsk’s “fortress cities” such 
as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk as a bulwark against Russian advances into even 
more regions.

Zelensky has also insisted on security guarantees, to deter Russia from 
invading again. He said he and Trump had discussed “positive signals” on 
the U.S. taking part, and that Ukraine needed a lasting peace, not “just 
another pause” between Russian invasions. Canadian Prime Minister Mark 
Carney welcomed what he described as Trump’s openness to providing security 
guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal. He said security guarantees were 
“essential to any just and lasting peace.”

Putin, who has opposed involving foreign ground forces, said he agreed with 
Trump that Ukraine’s security must be “ensured”. “I would like to hope that 
the understanding we have reached will allow us to get closer to that goal 
and open the way to peace in Ukraine,” Putin told a briefing on Friday with 
Trump. For Putin, just sitting down with Trump represented a victory. He 
had been ostracized by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just 
a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from Trump.
 

Trump spoke to European leaders after returning to Washington. Several 
stressed the need to keep pressure on Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said an end to the war was closer than 
ever, thanks to Trump, but added: “... until (Putin) stops his barbaric 
assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even 
more sanctions.” A statement from European leaders said, “Ukraine must have 
ironclad security guarantees” and no limits should be placed on its armed 
forces or right to seek NATO membership as Russia has sought.

Some European politicians and commentators were scathing about the summit. 
“Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing,” 
Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington, posted on X.

Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily 
occurrence, while fighting raged on the front. Trump told Fox he would 
postpone imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but he might 
have to “think about it” in two or three weeks.

He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Putin: “We’ll speak to you 
very soon and probably see you again very soon.”

“Next time in Moscow,” a smiling Putin responded in English.