The fate of Donald Trump’s push to stop the fighting in Ukraine will be tested again as Volodymyr Zelenskiy prepares to respond to the US president’s shifting demands following mixed signals from the Russia-US summit in Alaska.
Trump will host the Ukrainian president at the White House on Monday in their first Oval Office encounter since a public spat in February. The new encounter comes in the shadow of Friday’s still-secretive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after which Trump abandoned his push for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and Putin insisted that Kyiv give up land.
Trump told Zelenskiy and European leaders in a phone call that Putin wants Ukraine to cede control of the entire Donbas region in Ukraine’s east, renewing his longstanding demand, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition on anonymity.
Zelenskiy has previously said that Ukraine won’t give up territory and Putin has broken ceasefires before
The European leaders spoke with Trump as he flew back from Alaska, a meeting which failed to uncover a path to end the war, currently in its fourth year. Trump called his meeting productive, then also signaled he would tell Zelenskiy to make a deal, piling more pressure on the Ukrainian leader.
Several senior European diplomats expressed angst over the outcome soon after they got word of the details, noting Putin appeared to have gained the most. They pointed to Putin’s symbolic win for securing an invitation to the US and the Russian leader apparently prevailing on Trump to shift focus to an overarching peace settlement without an immediate ceasefire.
European allies from the so-called coalition-of-the-willing countries that pledged support to Kyiv will hold a video call on Sunday, France said on Saturday. Some European leaders may also join Zelenskiy in person for his meeting with Trump on Monday, said one of the people.
Trump’s White House stayed deliberately tight-lipped on Saturday after the president’s return to Washington, declining to further detail the talks, his plans or what he’d discuss with Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly ruled out giving up all of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow’s forces only partially control and have so far failed to take militarily. Russia would halt advancing its claims over the parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson region it doesn’t now control, effectively freezing the battle lines there, the people said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday voiced his doubts about the Russian leader’s intentions. “Putin has promised a lot so far, signed many agreements. I don’t believe it so easily. But at least, it’s the beginning of a conversation,” Merz said in an interview with RTL/ntv.
Trump told European leaders that he was prepared to contribute to guaranteeing Ukraine’s security as long as it didn’t involve NATO, they added. The president suggested Putin would be OK with that, the people said.
Ready to Work
“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post after a call with Trump on Saturday. Trump confirmed the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington in a Truth Social post, and said a meeting with Putin and Zelenskiy could be scheduled “if all works out.”
The US president said in the post that his meeting with Putin and the call with Zelenskiy both went “very well.”
“It was determined by all” that the best way to end the war was to achieve a peace agreement and “not a mere Ceasefire Agreement,” he wrote.
Trump had said going into the summit that a ceasefire would be his key demand. He also threatened to walk out of the meeting and to impose new tough punitive measures if it wasn’t met. Trump signaled on Friday he wasn’t in a rush to implement fresh penalties on Russia’s trading partners.
“This is just not Trump’s forte,” said Charles Lichfield, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center in Washington. “He’s not shaping the discussion, he’s not setting the themes, and he’s used to being in control, and this was him hosting, and yet we come out of it with him looking less in control. So it seems to be a bit of a failure to me.”
Still, he said, Europe has no choice but to deal with Trump as the broker. “He’s the one who has the most direct line to Putin,” Lichfield said. “I think the Ukrainians and Europeans are doomed to have to work through Trump.”
Uneasy Relationship
Monday’s visit to the White House will be a pivotal moment for Zelenskiy, who’s had an uneasy relationship with Trump. His last visit in the Oval Office in February ended in a shouting match between the two leaders and led to the US briefly pausing military aid to Ukraine.
Trump and Zelenskiy have since patched up their ties.
European officials welcomed Trump’s efforts but also reiterated the need for a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskiy in a statement released on Saturday. That statement made no mention of earlier demands for an immediate ceasefire as a first step toward negotiations.
The topic of a trilateral summit wasn’t raised in Alaska, Russia’s state TV channel Vesti reported on Saturday, citing Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.
European leaders also said that it will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. “International borders must not be changed by force,” according to the statement, signed by the leaders of France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Poland, the UK and the president of the European Commission.
Some European officials are concerned that Trump will now pressure Zelenskiy to make territorial concessions to reach a deal, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
“President Trump’s resolve to get a peace deal is vital,” said European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “But the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon.”
Putin continues to drag out negotiations and “left Anchorage without making any commitments to end the killing,” Kallas said.
Putin told his government on Saturday that the conversation with Trump in Alaska was “very frank and meaningful,” the Kremlin said on its website. “We, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military action,” he said. “We would also like this and would like to move to resolving all issues by peaceful means.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the Alaskan summit, Trump said that there were a few sticking points remaining, even as he cautioned that the two hadn’t reached a deal. He shifted his focus to Zelenskiy, putting the onus on him to end the war.
“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity” and “no limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries,” the statement from European leaders said. “Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine‘s pathway to EU and NATO.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram Saturday morning that Russia launched 85 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukrainian territory overnight, underscoring Moscow’s intention to press on with the war.
“We anticipate that in the coming days the Russian army may try to increase pressure and strikes against Ukrainian positions in order to create more favorable political circumstances for talks with global actors,” Zelenskiy said on X.
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