F%^Ks Ukraine.
NYT:
"Live Updates: Trump Backs Off Cease-Fire Demand in Ukraine War, Aligning With Putin
President Trump said that he and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia favor a comprehensive peace deal over the urgent cease-fire Ukraine wants. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he would meet with Mr. Trump in Washington on Monday."
President Trump appeared on Saturday to split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, adopting Mr. Putin’s preference for a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding unoccupied territory to Russia, instead of the urgent cease-fire Mr. Trump had said he wanted before the meeting.
Skipping cease-fire discussions would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are expected to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visits Mr. Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Mr. Trump and European allies, as well as Mr. Zelensky, had agreed to before the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska.
Mr. Trump told European leaders, that he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr. Zelensky agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.
In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. He has broken similar promises before.
Mr. Trump had threatened stark economic penalties if Mr. Putin left the meeting without a deal to end the war, but, as European and Russian officials acknowledged, he suspended those threats in the wake of the summit.
The American president’s moves got a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr. Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr. Putin.
Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Saturday that spoke by phone to Mr. Zelensky and European leaders after his meeting with Mr. Putin. He said 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, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
European leaders made clear, publicly and privately, that was not the case. They issued a statement that did not echo Mr. Trump’s claim that peace talks were preferable to a cease-fire. Britain, France, Germany and others welcomed Mr. Trump’s efforts to stop the war but threatened to increase economic penalties on Russia “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues.”
Still, in public statement, the European leaders praised Mr. Trump — in mellower terms than normal — for his efforts to broker peace, and in particular for his pledge to involve the United States in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security going forward.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said in a statement that Mr. Trump supported a collective-security clause that would allow Ukraine “to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the US, ready to take action if it is attacked again.”
Mr. Trump confirmed Mr. Zelensky’s announcement earlier Saturday that the Ukrainian president would come to the White House on Monday. If that visit goes well, Mr. Trump said, he would schedule another meeting with Mr. Putin.
With Russia advancing on the battlefield, a cease-fire would give Ukraine relief from Moscow’s attacks and deprive Mr. Putin of some leverage at the bargaining table. Before his meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump had agreed with European allies and Mr. Zelensky that no peace negotiations could begin without a cease-fire in place.
Mr. Zelensky, who was left out of the summit, said in a statement that he and Mr. Trump would on Monday “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
Mr. Trump, in an interview with the Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit, put the onus for securing peace on Mr. Zelensky. “Now it is really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” he said. “I would also say the European nations have to get involved a little bit.”
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has demanded that Ukraine cede a large part of its land, disarm, swear off joining NATO and change governments.
Here’s what else to know:
Alaska summit: Mr. Trump and American officials divulged few details on Friday about the substance of the nearly three-hour meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. The summit broke up ahead of schedule. After their first meeting with a few aides and a meal break, Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin were expected to meet again with a larger circle of people. The second session appeared not to take place, cutting short a summit Russian officials had said they expected to last six or seven hours.
Putin’s comments: At a joint news conference after their meeting, Mr. Putin referred obliquely to agreements between Mr. Trump and himself, without elaborating, and added, “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and will not throw a wrench in the works.” The Russian leader also endorsed Mr. Trump’s oft-stated claim that if he had been in the White House, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian concerns: Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian Parliament, said the meeting had been a public relations victory for Mr. Putin, who appeared as an equal to Mr. Trump, and “used Trump to show that he is not isolated.”
The Trump-Putin relationship: The meeting was at least the seventh face-to-face encounter between the two leaders, and the first of Mr. Trump’s second term. His first term was shadowed by questions over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly referred to as “the Russia hoax.” It was the first U.S. visit in a decade for Mr. Putin.