Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv ‘pushes Russian forces back’ hours after Putin asks Trump for Donetsk surrender – UK Times

Vladimir Putin has been “rewarded” for his invasion of Ukraine with Donald Trump’s summit in Alaska, leading experts have warned.

Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia programme and head of the Ukraine forum at the Chatham House think tank, said: “After six bilateral Trump-Putin phone calls, five trips of Trump’s envoy (Steve) Witkoff to Moscow, the Alaska summit, watched globally with so much anticipation and anxiety, failed to produce any tangible outcome to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“Russia has received a reward for its invasion.

“Trump called Russia a ‘great country’ and said there is strong mutual understanding between the two parties.

“This represents a further fissure in the already shaky Transatlantic alliance, the rupture of which is a primary Russian aim.

“The Alaska summit represents another step towards this goal.”

Keir Giles, an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, meanwhile, suggested there were “two dangers” which could emerge from the summit.

The first is that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky may now be perceived by Mr Trump as a “softer target where he is more willing to exert leverage”, and that the US president could “once again try to strongarm Zelensky into compromising the future of his country”.

The second danger is that European leaders “might once again think the immediate danger has passed” and become complacent, after their scramble to speak to Mr Trump ahead of the summit.

Olga Tokariuk, Fellow in Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the Alaska meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin offered “good news and bad news” for Ukraine – but ultimately handed Moscow a propaganda victory.

“The good news is that apparently no deal that would force Ukraine to capitulate or make major concessions was agreed,” she said.

“Another piece of good news is that a letter from Melania Trump was handed over to Putin, raising the issue of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia — a crime Putin was indicted for by the ICC.”

But she warned the optics were damaging. “The bad news is that Putin was given a five-star treatment by the US president Donald Trump… All these details and images are a clear propaganda win for Russia and are shared with delight in the Russian media. For Ukrainians, it was disheartening to watch Putin… being given such preferential treatment by the US.”

She added: “Putin had no intention to give up on his maximalist demands… Undoubtedly, Putin is coming back from Alaska even more convinced that he can get away with everything.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed what he said was US openness to providing security guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal to end Russia’s war against Kyiv.

“Robust and credible security guarantees are essential to any just and lasting peace. I welcome the openness of the United States to providing security guarantees as part of Coalition of the Willing’s efforts,” Carney said in a statement.

“The leadership of President Trump and the United States is creating the opportunity to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

Our World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley reports:

The Ukrainian military said that it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 square kilometres in the region, according to Ukraine’s battlefield mapping project DeepState.

“Ukrainian soldiers continue active combat actions to destroy the enemy and liberate our settlements,” the Ukrainian general staff wrote on Facebook.

It added that fighting was raging near the villages of Oleksiivka and Yunakivka, which lie 5 km and 7 km from the Russian border, respectively.

The ebb and flow of the battlefield lines has taken on greater political significance in recent days as Ukraine finds itself at another critical diplomatic juncture with U.S. President Donald Trump stepping up his efforts to broker an end to the war.

The “path to peace in Ukraine” cannot be decided without Volodymyr Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer said, as he commended Donald Trump’s “pursuit of an end to the killing”.

The Prime minister said the US president’s actions had “brought us closer than ever before” to an end to the war in Ukraine.

But he insisted insisted Ukraine’s leader must take part in future peace talks after speaking with Mr Trump and Nato allies in the wake of the US president’s negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

Sir Keir spent Saturday morning speaking to western allies in the wake of the Anchorage summit.

Following the round of calls, the Prime minister said: “President Trump’s efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. His leadership in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended.

“While progress has been made, the next step must be further talks involving President Zelensky. The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without him.”

My colleague Holly Evans reports: