Trump-Putin meeting live updates: Zelensky to meet US president in Washington after Alaska talks end with no deal – UK Times

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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Russia must face more pressure over the war in Ukraine, Norway’s foreign minister said on Saturday, following a summit in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

“We must continue to put pressure on Russia, and even increase it, to give the clear signal to Russia that it must pay the price (for its invasion of Ukraine),” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters in Oslo.

Following the meeting, the U.S. president spoke to his European counterparts, including Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer.

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken with Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders after the US president met Vladimir Putin in Alaska overnight, Downing Street said.

On the call were leaders from Italy, France, Finland, Germany and Poland, as well as Nato’s Mark Rutte, and Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission.

Sir Keir is due to speak again with European leaders this morning.