Trump urges Zelensky to cut deal as Putin wants more of Ukraine

WASHINGTON/ MOSCOW/KYIV: US 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.

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 US support, have demanded.

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.

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.

Trump’s meeting with Putin, the first US-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.

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.

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 US 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. 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.

US President Donald Trump backs a Russian proposal for Moscow to take full control of two Ukrainian regions and freeze the front line in two others which Moscow only partially controls, a source told AFP.

The New York Times also cited two senior European officials saying Trump supported Putin’s plan “to end the war in Ukraine by ceding unconquered territory to the Russian invaders, rather than try for a ceasefire”.

Meanwhile, the US has proposed Ukraine be protected by a Nato-style collective defence guarantee to allay fears of renewed Russian aggression in the event of a peace deal, Italy’s premier and diplomatic sources said Saturday. The suggestion was raised during a call US President Donald Trump held with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders Saturday.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said he discussed ways of ending the conflict in Ukraine “on a fair basis” at his meeting with US President Donald Trump. Speaking to top officials in Moscow a day after the talks in Alaska, Putin also said they had been “timely” and “very useful”, according to images put out by the Kremlin. “We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time,” he said, adding: “We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail reiterate our position.”

”The conversation was very frank, substantive, and, in my opinion, brings us closer to the necessary decisions,” he said.