Trump, with Ukraine's Zelenskyy, rejects urgent ceasefire and vows to ensure long-term peace

Ahead of the high stakes meeting with the European leaders, United States President while addressing the media with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that US will try to negotiate an end to the Ukrainian crisis without a ceasefire that brings a pause in fighting.

The meeting is the first since an acrimonious row between the two leaders in the Oval Office in February, and comes just days after Trump held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. He said he would be talking to Putin by telephone later Monday and hoped for a three-way meeting with the Kremlin leader and Zelensky.

Additionally, Trump said on Monday that he thought progress was being made in resolving the war in Ukraine and it was possible that something could come out of his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I think if everything works out well today we'll have a trilat, and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that," said Trump, sitting in the Oval alongside Zelensky.

What happened in Alaska?

In the Friday meeting at a U.S. military base in Alaska, Trump adopted Putin's preference for pursuing a sweeping peace agreement that would require Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.

Trump rolled out a red carpet and applauded Putin, who is under U.S. sanctions and faces an international arrest warrant on war crimes charges. The two laughed and spoke warmly with each other.

At the meeting, Putin offered a ceasefire with Ukraine based on the current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again. Putin has broken similar promises before.

Trump dropped his demand for an immediate ceasefire in favor of a rapid peace treaty that would require Ukraine to cede the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops.

Skipping ceasefire talks and going straight for a peace deal has been a demand of Putin in the long diplomatic effort to end the war in Ukraine, which began in 2022 when Russia invaded the country. Doing so would also allow Russia to go directly to negotiations over land swaps and other onerous demands on Ukraine.

Putin wants the Donbas
As a condition for peace, the Russian leader wants Kyiv to give up the Donbas, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely.

In his Sunday night post, Trump wrote that Zelenskyy should also accept Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

As part of a deal, Putin has said the United States and its European allies can provide Ukraine with a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense pledge, according to a senior U.S. official.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff called that a “game-changing” step though he offered few details on how it would work.

Ukraine has long pressed for some kind of guarantee that would prevent Russia from invading again.

Ukraine won’t surrender land to RussiaZelenskyy has rejected Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the Donbas region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, since the Ukrainian Constitution forbids giving up territory or trading land. That also means he can't cede Crimea either.

Instead, freezing the front line — which snakes roughly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from northeastern to southeastern Ukraine — seems to be the most the Ukrainian people might accept.

Russia currently holds about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

What's the state of the war?

Russia entered Friday's talks with the United States from a position of strength on the battlefield in Ukraine. It has driven a wedge into Ukrainian defenses in the east, and Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow has massed forces and equipment for new offensive operations.

In recent days, Russian forces broke through a section of Ukrainian defenses in the eastern Donbas region. Russian troops advanced about 10 miles, threatening to outflank Ukraine's positions.

The Russian advance has come at a steep price. About 230,000 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the invasion, according to estimates based on obituaries collected by the independent news outlet Mediazona and BBC News Russian. Ukrainian losses are estimated at less than half of that figure.

But Moscow has been able to rebuild and even expand its battered forces by tapping into a population that is four times as large as Ukraine's. Kyiv has struggled to replenish its army through conscription.


'A very big move'
European officials confirmed that Trump told them Putin is still seeking control of the entire Donbas region, even though Ukraine controls a meaningful share of it.

Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the U.S. and its allies could offer Ukraine a NATO-like commitment to defend the country if it came under attack as the possible security guarantee, with details to be worked out.

Monday’s meeting will likely be very tough for Zelenskyy, an official close to the ongoing talks said. That official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak openly about thinking within Ukraine and between allies.

Zelenskyy needs to prevent a scenario in which he gets blamed for blocking peace talks by rejecting Putin’s maximalist demand on the Donbas, the official said. It is a demand Zelenskyy has said many times he will never accept because it is unconstitutional and could create a launching pad for future Russian attacks.

If confronted with pressure to accept Putin’s demands, Zelenskyy would likely have to revert to a skill he has demonstrated time and again: diplomatic tact. The Ukrainian leadership is seeking a trilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump and Putin to discuss sensitive matters, including territorial issues.

Trump's ambition to end the warAfter enduring a public tirade by Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February, Zelenskyy worked to repair relations with the U.S.

Constant diplomatic communication and a 15-minute meeting at the Vatican in April on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral helped turn the tide. Trump appeared at the time to be swayed by Zelenskyy’s conditions for peace.

But Trump says he cares primarily about ending the war, an ambition that led him after his meeting with Putin to discard the need for a ceasefire.

European allies also have worked with Trump, reaching a deal in July for NATO allies to buy weapons from the U.S. for Ukraine.

Russian forces continued to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones. A Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, killed seven civilians late Sunday.

Putin spoke with the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa Monday to discuss his meeting with Trump in Alaska, the Kremlin said. He also spoke with leaders in Central Asia and the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, it said.