Ukraine

The Guardian -    Following his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, Donald Trump told European leaders that he supported a plan to end the Ukraine-Russia war by ceding unconquered land to Russia, the New York Times reported, citing two senior European officials.

The officials said Trump will discuss the plan with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday when the Ukrainian president visits the White House, adding that European leaders have been invited to join.

Reports of Trump supporting a potential land cession marks a shift in Trump’s previous demands of an immediate ceasefire.

According to the New York Times, Trump believes a peace deal can be swiftly negotiated, “so long as Mr Zelenskyy agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops”.

Axios - President Trump's positions coming out of yesterday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska were that he no longer thinks a ceasefire is necessary, and it's "up to President Zelensky" to make peace...

That's the opposite of the approach Trump endorsed on his way to the summit.

Trump will host Ukrainian President Zelensky — who has been adamant that there must be a ceasefire before peace talks — for what could be a difficult meeting at the White House on Monday afternoon.

Trump called Zelensky from Air Force One on his way back to Washington from Alaska. The call "was not easy," a source with direct knowledge said.

• According to the source, Trump told Zelensky and the NATO leaders that Putin doesn't want a ceasefire and prefers a comprehensive agreement to end the war. "Trump said on the call that he thinks a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire," the source said....

Trump also told Zelensky that Putin had told him Russia was making significant progress on the front lines and that if he wanted, he could capture the entire Donetsk region and other areas where fighting is taking place.

• Zelensky told Trump that Putin was misrepresenting the situation, the source said. MORE

 The Guardian -   Donald Trump left more questions than answers on Friday as he claimed “great progress” in his high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin but admitted that no deal had been reached to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The US president also suggested that it was now up to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “get it done” and that a meeting would be set up between the Ukrainian president and Putin, which Trump might attend.

“We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to,” Trump said at a joint press conference in Anchorage, Alaska. “There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

He cautioned: “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

The two leaders lavished praise on each other – Putin endorsed Trump’s view that the war would never have started if Trump had won the 2020 election – but offered no details of the nearly three-hour meeting and took no questions from reporters.

Putin, speaking through an interpreter, described Trump’s efforts on Ukraine as “precious” and, suggested the two leaders had hammered out “an understanding”. He urged Europe to “not throw a wrench in the works” and to “not use backroom dealings” to torpedo it.

Putin said that he agreed that Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed – but also said that the “root causes” of the conflict must be resolved. Those “root causes” have previously included his demands for Ukraine’s formal renunciation of Nato membership as well as its “denazification” – a vague set of demands that in practice amount to the removal of Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy and European allies may have been alarmed by Trump’s body language and deferential attitude toward Putin, whom he welcomed warmly at an Alaska air force base and allowed to ride in the presidential limousine known as “the beast”.