- Ukrainian president says Trump invited him during a phone call that lasted more than an hour and a half on Saturday
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would travel to Washington on Monday for talks with Donald Trump, after the US president’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin failed to bring an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine or a plan to achieve one.
He said Trump had invited him on Saturday in a phone call that lasted more than an hour and a half. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added. On X, he said he and Trump would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”, adding: “I am grateful for the invitation.”
Zelenskiy has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and US leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his bilateral talks in Alaska with Putin were successful. “Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” Zelenskiy added in his post.
It was not clear, though, what Trump would be asking of Zelenskiy.
Trump said on Saturday that it had been decided at the summit that the best way to end the war was to proceed directly to a peace deal and not press for an immediate ceasefire. Kyiv and its European allies, unlike Moscow, have until now insisted that negotiations must be preceded by a ceasefire.
In his statement after the summit, Putin did not signal any movement in Russia’s maximalist position, saying it was necessary to eliminate the “root causes” of the war and address Moscow’s “legitimate concerns”.
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that, on the face of it, little had changed after the summit:
“As we expected, nothing happened. No results, and everyone stands their ground. Putin did not back down from his ultimatum, Trump wanted to show that he is a great dealmaker, but he failed.”
But the lawmaker said he was worried Putin had effectively emerged from his years-long isolation from the West, though Ukraine had seemingly avoided the “worst-case scenario” as it was not being coerced into a deal involving crushing concessions.
Trump had publicly hardened his stance towards Moscow in recent weeks, following months of verbally attacking Ukraine and its leadership. He threatened to sanction Russia heavily if Putin failed to make a deal.
But as his sanctions deadline for Moscow neared last week, the US president instead invited Putin to a summit in Alaska at which he rolled out the red carpet.
With no deal reached at Friday’s summit, Trump said he did not need to think about the question of sanctions “right now”.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly underlined the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any deal, to deter Russia from launching a new invasion at some point in the future. “We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security,” he said after his call with Trump.
