WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”, after hosting a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have demanded more Ukrainian land.
In a subsequent briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a source familiar with the discussion cited Trump as saying
the Russian leader had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv’s forces ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets.
Zelenskiy 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.
Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with U.S. support, have demanded.
Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, the first U.S.-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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.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. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and 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 Zelenskiy to do, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”
“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.
