KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Monday in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has shifted to saying an general peace settlement — and never a ceasefire — is the subsequent step in ending Ukraine’s three-and-a-half 12 months struggle with Russia.
Trump’s abrupt reversal, aligning himself with a place held by Russian President Vladimir Putin, got here in a social media publish on Saturday, hours after they concluded a summit in Alaska that produced no settlement to halt the preventing.
Putin has lengthy stated that Moscow will not be inquisitive about a short lived truce, and as an alternative is looking for a long-term settlement that takes the Kremlin’s pursuits into consideration.
After calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump posted that “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.”
In an announcement after the Trump name, the European leaders didn’t deal with whether or not a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire, saying they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.”
Trump and Ukraine’s European allies had been calling for a ceasefire forward of any negotiations.
Trump’s assertion {that a} peace settlement must be reached earlier than a ceasefire seems to point Trump’s considering is “shifting towards Putin,” an strategy that may permit Moscow to maintain preventing whereas negotiating, stated Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow on the Worldwide Institute of Strategic Research in London.
Zelenskyy, who was not invited to Alaska for the summit, stated he had a “long and substantive” dialog with Trump early Saturday. He stated they’d “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war” on Monday.
Will probably be Zelenskyy’s first go to to the U.S. since Trump berated him publicly for being “disrespectful” throughout a unprecedented Oval Workplace assembly on Feb. 28.
Trump, who additionally held calls with European leaders Saturday, confirmed the White Home assembly and stated that “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
However Putin’s overseas affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, advised Russian state tv on Saturday {that a} attainable three-way assembly “has not been touched upon yet” in U.S.-Russia discussions.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that he advised Trump that “sanctions must be strengthened if there isn’t any trilateral assembly or if Russia tries to evade an sincere finish to the struggle.“
Trump rolled out the pink carpet on Friday for Putin, who was within the U.S. for the primary time in a decade and because the begin of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However he gave little concrete element afterward of what was mentioned.
Trump stated in Alaska that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” after Putin claimed the 2 leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe to not “torpedo the nascent progress.”
Of their assertion after chatting with Trump, main European leaders stated they have been able to work with Trump and Zelenskyy towards “a trilateral summit with European support.”
However European Union overseas coverage chief Kaja Kallas stated “the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon,” noting that Moscow launched new assaults on Ukraine even because 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 stated.
Initially Revealed: August 16, 2025 at 12:22 PM EDT
