US President Donald Trump has changed his position on an immediate ceasefire after meeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, instead urging Ukraine to accept a peace deal which includes ceding land.
The shift came after Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska on Saturday (AEST), with the two exchanging warm greetings and holding a three-hour meeting.
Putin made his demands during the high-stakes talks, reportedly seeking control of more territory in Ukraine in exchange for halting his army.
Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky afterwards 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 told AAP.
Zelensky rejected the demand, the source said.
After the talks, Trump said Ukraine should agree to a full-fledged peace deal to end the war because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.
Trump said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies had demanded.
That was a change from his position before the summit, when he said would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.
“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.
Zelensky is flying to Washington for a meeting on Monday under heavy US pressure to agree to a swift end to the war.
Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Zelensky said Russia’s unwillingness to pause the fighting would complicate efforts to forge a lasting peace.
“Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war,” he said on X.
Nevertheless, Zelensky said he would meet Trump in Washington.
That will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Zelensky a brutal public dressing-down.
Trump said a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelensky could follow.
Kyiv’s European allies welcomed Trump’s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months.
The war — the deadliest in Europe for 80 years — has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Trump’s various comments on the three-hour meeting with Putin mostly aligned with the public positions of Moscow, which says a full settlement will be complex because positions are “diametrically opposed”.
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. 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.
Trump’s pursuit of a quick deal now comes despite intense diplomacy by the European allies and Ukraine to convince the US president that a ceasefire should come first and not, as sought by the Kremlin, once a settlement is agreed.
After the summit, European leaders released a joint statement defending Ukraine’s right to make decisions on its territory.
“International borders must not be changed by force,” said the statement.
“Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting and a just and lasting peace.”
“As long as the killing in Ukraine continues, we stand ready to uphold the pressure on Russia.
“We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia’s war economy until there is a just and lasting peace.”
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 further Russian advances.
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.
For Putin, just sitting down with Trump represented a victory. He had been ostracised by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from 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 said he would impose more sanctions on Russia if the war continued.
Melania Trump writes to Putin
US President Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, has raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials say.
President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters.
Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska on Friday.
The officials would not divulge the contents of the letter other than to say it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war in Ukraine.
The existence of the letter was not previously reported.
Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian children has been a deeply sensitive one for Ukraine.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy conveyed his gratitude to the first lady on his call with Trump on Saturday, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
“This is a true act of humanism,” Andrii Sybiha added on X.
Previously Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia has inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a US military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
-with AAP
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