𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday Ukraine should agree a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”, after holding a summit with President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield a ceasefire.

In a major shift, Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that the best way to end the war was to go straight to a peace settlement – not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with U.S. support, have been demanding.

n a post-summit interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signaled that he and Putin had discussed potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine.

“I think those are points that we negotiated, and those are points that we largely have agreed on,” Trump said.

“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say no.”

When asked by Hannity what he would advise Zelensky, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”

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

European leaders prepared a joint statement after evaluating information given by Donald Trump about the summit in Alaska and listening to the opinions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday.

“The conversation among European leaders evaluating the information provided by President Trump and the outcomes of the Alaska meeting has concluded,” Tusk wrote on X.

“Together with @EmmanuelMacron, @_FriedrichMerz, @Keir_Starmer, @GiorgiaMeloni, we listened to the opinions of @ZelenskyyUa and prepared a joint statement.”

Tusk did not say when the statement would be issued.

Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to hail the Alaska summit as a “great and very successful day”.

He added that he had spoken to Zelensky and European allies, and that it had been agreed that a peace agreement was the way forward, rather than a ceasefire deal.

He wrote: “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.”

Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing a source, that Trump told Zelensky and European leaders during the phone call that Putin was not interested in a ceasefire but in a comprehensive agreement to end the war.

“I think a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire,” Trump said in the call, according to Ravid, who cited a source on the call without identifying that person.

The report has not been verified.

The world is a safer place following the meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.

“For years, we have watched the two largest nuclear powers eliminate the framework of their cooperation and send messages to each other,” Orban wrote on Facebook. “It’s over now. The world is a safer place today than it was yesterday.”

In the early hours of Saturday morning following a summit in Alaska between the leaders of Russia and the United States, senior politicians in Moscow were quick to trumpet the meeting as a win for Russia and its narrative of the war in Ukraine.

“The meeting in Alaska confirmed Russia’s desire for peace, long-term and fair,” said Andrei Klishas, a senior lawmaker from President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.

He portrayed the summit as a coup for Russia and a loss for Ukraine and its European allies, who have been pushing for an unconditional ceasefire.

“The tasks of the SMO will be accomplished either by military or diplomatic means,” Klishas wrote, using the acronym for Special Military Operation, the Kremlin’s term for the war.

“A new architecture for European and international security is on the agenda, and everyone must accept it.”

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president known for his hawkish views, said the summit proved that it was possible to hold talks without conditions – as Moscow has insisted – while the fighting in Ukraine rages on.

Russia’s flagship Channel One morning state news bulletin on Saturday stressed the pageantry around the summit, its global profile, and the warm welcome extended to Putin, who had been ostracized by Western leaders since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and European partners on Saturday morning following the meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the Elysee office said in a statement on Saturday.

The phone conversation lasted for one hour and other there were seven other European leaders present, including Volodymyr Zelensky, Freidrich Merz, Keir Starmer, Giorgia Meloni, Alezander Stubb and Karol Nawrocki, as well as the secretary general of NATO, the statement said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has announced he will visit Donald Trump in Washington DC on Monday, after an hour-long call with the U.S. president following his meeting with Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian president reaffirmed his “readiness to work with maximum effort” to achieve a peace deal.

He stressed: “ We support President Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the USA, and Russia. Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this.”

British personnel are ready to arrive in Ukraine just “days” after Moscow and Kyiv agree to put fighting on hold, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The UK Government earlier this summer backed international efforts to set up a “Multinational Force Ukraine”, a military plan to bolster Ukraine’s defences once the conflict eases, in a bid to ward off future Russian aggression.

“Planning has continued on an enduring basis to ensure that a force can deploy in the days following the cessation of hostilities,” an MoD spokesperson said.

According to the Government, “along with securing Ukraine’s skies and supporting safer seas, the force is expected to regenerate land forces by providing logistics, armaments, and training expertise”.

It “will strengthen Ukraine’s path to peace and stability by supporting the regeneration of Ukraine’s own forces”, the spokesperson added.

Early designs for the Multinational Force Ukraine were originally drafted last month, after military chiefs met in Paris to agree a strategy and co-ordinate plans with the EU, Nato, the US and more than 200 planners.

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