Trump drops Ukraine ceasefire demand after Putin summit

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Aug 16 dropped his push for a ceasefire in Ukraine in favour of pursuing a full peace accord – a major shift announced hours after his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin yielded no clear breakthrough.

Prior to

the high-stakes meeting in Alaska

, securing an immediate cessation of hostilities had been a core demand of Mr Trump – who had threatened “severe consequences” on Russia – and European leaders, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who will now visit Washington on Aug 18.

The shift away from ceasefire

would seem to favour Mr Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal – a strategy that Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances.

Mr Trump spoke with Mr Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back to Washington, saying afterwards 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”.

Ceasefire agreements “often times do not hold up”, Mr Trump added on his Truth Social platform.

This new development “complicates the situation”, Mr Zelensky said on Aug 16.

If Moscow lacks “the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades,” he said on social media.

‘Harsh reality’

In the call, Mr Trump expressed support for a proposal by Mr Putin to take full control of two largely Russian-held Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others, an official briefed on the talks told AFP.

Mr Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas”, an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, the source said.

In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control.

Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them.

“The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas,” the source said.

Mr Trump notably also said the US was prepared to provide Ukraine security guarantees, an assurance German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed as “significant progress”.

But there was a scathing assessment of the summit outcome from the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who accused Mr Putin of seeking to “drag out negotiations” with no commitment to end the bloodshed.

“The harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon,” Ms Kallas said.

Zelensky back in White House

The main diplomatic focus now switches to Mr Zelensky’s talks at the White House on Aug 18.

An EU source told AFP that a number of European leaders had also been invited to attend.

The Ukrainian president’s last Oval Office visit in February ended in an extraordinary shouting match, with Mr Trump and US Vice-President J.D. Vance publicly berating Mr Zelensky for not showing enough gratitude for US aid.

Mr Zelensky said on Aug 16 after a “substantive” conversation with Mr Trump about the Alaska summit that he looked forward to his Washington visit and discussing “all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”.

In an interview with broadcaster Fox News after his sit-down with Mr Putin, Mr Trump had suggested that the onus was now on Mr Zelensky to secure a peace deal as they work towards an eventual trilateral summit with the Russian leader.

“It’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” Mr Trump said.

European pressure

The leaders of France, Britain and Germany are due to host a video call on Aug 17 for their so-called “coalition of the willing” to discuss the way forward.

In an earlier statement, they welcomed the plan for a Trump-Putin-Zelensky summit but added that they would maintain pressure on Russia in the absence of a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine raged on, with Kyiv announcing on Aug 16 that Russia had launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile during the night.

Back in Moscow, Mr Putin said his summit talks with Mr Trump had been “timely” and “very useful”.

In his post-summit statement in Alaska, Mr Putin had warned Ukraine and European countries not to engage in any “behind-the-scenes intrigues” that could disrupt what he called “this emerging progress”. AFP