Prior to the Summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump held a video call with Volodymyr Zelensky and the main European leaders, where they set as their main position a ceasefire in Ukraine. However, after his meeting with the Russian president, the US president changed his position and now wants to “end this horrible” in exchange for the cession of Ukrainian territory.
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Avoiding a truce would give Russia the advantage in negotiations, while continuing to bomb and advance in Ukraine as happened in the last hours in a show of power by Putin.
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What did Trump say about the summit with Putin?
This morning, through his Truth Social network, Trump said that “the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was very successful, as well as a late-night phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky, and several European leaders, including the respected NATO Secretary General," and then added that “everyone agreed that the best way to end the terrible war between Russia and Ukraine is to reach a Peace Agreement directly, which would end the war, and not just a Ceasefire Agreement, which often is not upheld.”
According to The New York Times, Trump’s new stance was met with coldness by European leaders, and none of the statements issued in the last hours supported the idea of the President of the United States.
In a joint statement, various leaders such as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; the Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz; the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for a new meeting of the coalition of partners of Ukraine tomorrow. They also stated that “it will be up to Ukraine to make decisions about its territory. International borders cannot be changed by force.”
The message seems to point to Trump’s new position of supporting Putin’s idea of ending the war in exchange for Ukraine handing over territory to Russia. According to The New York Times, the President of the United States told European leaders that he believed peace could be achieved if Zelensky agreed to hand over the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, including areas not occupied by Russian troops.
In exchange, Putin would commit in writing to end the war in Ukraine and not to attack it in the future.
In the European leaders’ statement, they said that “as long as the massacres in Ukraine continue, we are willing to maintain pressure on Russia” and that “we will continue to strengthen sanctions and broader economic measures to pressure Russia’s war economy until a just and lasting peace is achieved.”
Zelensky will go to the White House on Monday
In the same Truth Social message, Trump confirmed that on Monday he will receive Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House to discuss the proposals discussed with the Russian president in Alaska. He also said that in the future a three-way meeting could take place: “If all goes well, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
However, one of the main advisors to the Kremlin, Yuri Ushakov, assured that this possibility of a meeting with Zelensky was not discussed in Alaska, according to official Russian news agencies.
In a careful statement, where he apparently tried not to contradict Trump, the President of Ukraine stated, “We need to achieve a true and lasting peace, not just another pause between Russian invasions,” but then added: “The killings must stop as soon as possible, and the firing must cease both on the battlefield and in the air, as well as against our port infrastructure.”