Zelenskiy to meet Trump after no deal at Alaska summit
Samya Kulla and Elise Morton |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington after a Russia-US summit ended without an agreement to stop the fighting in Ukraine after three-and-a-half years.
After calls early on Saturday with Zelenskiy and European leaders, Trump posted on social media that “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”.
That statement echoed previous remarks by President Vladimir Putin that Russia is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes Moscow’s interests into account.
Zelenskiy, who was not invited to Alaska for the summit, said he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump.
He thanked him for an invitation to meet in person in Washington on Monday and said they would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”.
It will be Zelenskiy’s first visit to the US since Trump berated him publicly for being “disrespectful” during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting on February 28.
Trump confirmed the White House meeting and said “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin”.
Trump rolled out the red carpet on 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, but posted on social media that it “went very well”.
Trump had warned before the summit of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin did not agree to end the war.
Zelenskiy reiterated the importance of involving European leaders, who also were 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 did not elaborate, but Zelenskiy previously has said 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.
Zelenskiy said he spoke to Trump one-on-one and then in a call with other European leaders.
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 before returning to Washington, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskiy “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
After speaking to Trump, major European leaders said they were ready to work with Trump and Zelenskiy 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 “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, adding “international borders must not be changed by force”.
They did not mention a ceasefire, which they had hoped for before the summit.
Zelenskiy voiced support for Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting with the US and Russia.
But Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Russian state television that a potential meeting of Trump, Putin and Zelenskiy had not been raised in US-Russia discussions.
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.
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.
Frontline 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.
AP
