Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington Monday after a Russia-US summit ended without an agreement to stop the fighting in Ukraine after 3 1/2 years.
In a reversal, only a few hours after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said an overall peace agreement, and not a ceasefire, was the best way to end the war. That statement echoed Putin’s view that Russia is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes Moscow’s interests into account.
Trump and Ukraine’s European allies had been calling for a ceasefire ahead of any negotiations.
Zelenskyy, who was not invited to Alaska for the summit, said he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump early Saturday. He thanked Trump for an invitation to meet in person in Washington Monday and said they would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
It will be Zelenskyy’s first visit to the US since Trump berated him publicly for being “disrespectful” during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting February 28.
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 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. On Saturday, he posted on social media that it “went very well.”
Trump had warned ahead of the summit of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin didn’t agree to end the war.
Zelenskyy seeks European involvement
Zelenskyy reiterated the importance of involving European leaders, who were also 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.”
He didn’t elaborate, but Zelenskyy previously has said that European partners put on hold a proposal to establish a foreign troop presence in Ukraine to deter future Russian aggression because it lacked an American backstop.
Zelenskyy said he spoke to Trump one-on-one and then in a call with other European leaders. In total, the conversations lasted over 90 minutes.
Trump puts onus on Zelenskyy, Europe
Trump said in Alaska that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” after Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.”
During an interview with Fox News Channel before returning to Washington, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy “to get it done,” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
In a 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.”
The statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the European Union’s two top officials said that “Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees” and welcomed US readiness to provide them.
“It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory,” they said. “International borders must not be changed by force.” They did not mention a ceasefire, which they had hoped for ahead of the summit.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said “the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon,” noting that Moscow’s forces launched new attacks on Ukraine even as the delegations met.
“Putin continues to drag out negotiations and hopes he gets away with it. He left Anchorage without making any commitments to end the killing,” she said.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the summit confirmed that “while the U.S. and its allies are looking for ways to peace, Putin is still only interested in making the greatest possible territorial gains and restoring the Soviet empire.”
Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting along a 1,000-kilometre front line. Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their gains, capturing the most territory since the opening stages of the war.
“Vladimir Putin came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.”
Questions on Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin meeting
Zelenskyy voiced support for Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting with the US and Russia. He said that “key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this.”
But Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Russian state television Saturday that a potential meeting of Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy has not been raised in US-Russia discussions. “The topic has not been touched upon yet,” he said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that he told Trump that “sanctions should be strengthened if there is no trilateral meeting or if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war.”
Russian officials and media struck a largely positive tone, with some describing Friday’s meeting 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.”
Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight, using one ballistic missile and 85 Shahed drones, 61 of which were shot down, Ukraine’s air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 29 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Sea of Azov overnight.
AP
