Trump tells Zelensky that Putin wants more of Ukraine, urges Kyiv make a deal

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said on Aug 16 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.

After

the two leaders met in Alaska

on Aug 15, Mr Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Mr 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.

Mr 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.

Mr Trump also said he agreed with Mr 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.

Mr Zelensky said he would meet Mr Trump in Washington on Aug 18, while Kyiv’s European allies welcomed Mr Trump’s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia.

Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr 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,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.

Aligned with Moscow

His various comments on the meeting mostly aligned with the public positions of Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause - but that this will be complex because positions are “diametrically opposed”.

Russia 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.

Before the summit, Mr Trump had said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.

But afterwards he said that, after the Aug 18 talks with Mr Zelensky, “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin”.

Those talks will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in February, where Mr Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance gave Mr Zelensky

a brutal public dressing-down.

Mr 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 Mr 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, Mr Trump signalled that he and Mr 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 Mr Zelensky to do, Mr Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”

“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.

Security guarantees

Mr 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.

Mr Zelensky has also insisted on security guarantees, to deter Russia from invading again. He said he and Mr 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 Mr 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.”

Mr Putin, who has opposed involving foreign ground forces, said he agreed with Mr 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,” Mr Putin told a briefing on Aug 15 with Mr Trump.

For Mr Putin, just sitting down with Mr 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 Mr Trump.

‘1-0 for Putin’

Mr 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 Mr Trump, but added: “... until (Mr 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.

Some European politicians and commentators were scathing about the summit. “Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing,” Mr Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington, posted on X.

Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence, while fighting raged on the front. Mr Trump told Fox he would postpone imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but he might have to “think about it” in two or three weeks.

He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Mr Putin: “We’ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.”

“Next time in Moscow,” a smiling Mr Putin responded in English. REUTERS