Trump also told the Europeans he would be open to providing security guarantees for Ukraine in a deal but the details were unclear, according to two European diplomats. European leaders were invited to join Zelensky and Trump in the White House on Monday, the diplomats said.
he Europeans have said any agreement should protect Ukraine against further Russian attacks and welcomed comments by Trump that the United States could back security guarantees, a level of U.S. involvement that Europeans have long sought.
Before the Alaska summit, European officials expressed guarded optimism that the United States was supporting their demand for a ceasefire along the current line of contact. But after the call Saturday, Trump abandoned it publicly.
“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 wrote on Truth Social.
Putin has repeatedly rebuffed calls for a ceasefire. He has insisted instead on broader negotiations for a final peace deal. Ukraine and its European allies say that position is a stalling tactic for Russia to press its gains on the battlefield.
Putin told a meeting of top Russian officials on Saturday that the summit with Trump was “very useful” and “in my opinion, it brings us closer to the right decisions.” He said he told Trump that settling “root causes” — his demands that Ukraine be demilitarized and barred from joining NATO — “must be at the heart of any possible agreement.”
Zelensky, meanwhile, said he and Trump had a “long and substantive” conversation on Saturday, lasting around an hour, before they were joined on the call by European leaders.
He would meet with Trump “to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war,” he said, asserting “readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace.”
It was important, Zelensky added, that European countries and the United States were “involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees” for Ukraine, and there were “positive signals” that Washington would participate.
He also repeated his support for Trump’s earlier proposal of a trilateral summit with him and Putin.
Top Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said, however, that this was not broached in Alaska.
After their call Saturday, the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the European Union said they stood “ready to work” for the trilateral summit “with European support.”
“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees,” they said in a joint statement. They vowed to keep supporting Kyiv and pressuring Moscow.
They said there could be no limitations on Ukraine’s military, no “Russia veto” in its ambitions to join the E.U. or NATO, and that it remained “up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory.”
They did not mention an insistence on a ceasefire before any negotiations.
On Zelensky’s last visit to the White House, in February, Trump and Vice President JD Vance upbraided the Ukrainian leader and accused him of blocking a deal. European leaders worked with Zelensky to mend the relationship.
European leaders, who have made painstaking efforts to keep Trump onside, praised on Saturday his efforts to end the war.
But the call left them once again scrambling to absorb the president’s foreign policy gyrations. A few weeks ago, Trump had threatened new sanctions on Moscow if it did not commit to a ceasefire and complained that Putin was deceiving him.
Still, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sought to suggest some cause for hope Saturday.
There could be “much more to come, according to the American president — namely, a comprehensive peace agreement,” Merz told German broadcaster ZDF. He called U.S. willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine “good news.”
“But, of course,” he said, “the Europeans, for their part, must contribute to ensuring Ukraine’s security in the long term.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the discussions included “credible and robust” security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump cautioned this week that this could not come through NATO.
Europe’s own plans for security guarantees acceptable to Ukraine remain blurry. Zelensky’s top aspiration — joining NATO — is elusivewithout consensus. A plan for a small European force in Ukraineremains on a back burner.
European allies say guarantees would start with their pledges of more weapons and training for Ukraine’s army. France and Britain had sought to build U.S. support for a plan to deploy some forces to Ukraine, away from the front lines, in a future deal. The proposal draws on the United States supporting a force or ceasefire with key capabilities such as intelligence and satellite surveillance.
The summit, which ended with no agreement, was seen as a public relations success for Putin, who was welcomed by Trump after years of Western isolation since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump told Fox News after the summit that he and Putin “agreed on a lot of points” but that “one or two pretty significant items” remained.
“It’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” Trump said. “I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit.”
Putting the onus on Zelensky leaves the Ukrainian leader in a delicate position, as all sides maneuver to avoid being seen as hindering Trump’s push for a peace deal.
Although polls show that war-weary Ukrainians increasingly favor a settlement, it would be difficult for Kyiv to sell giving away territory — home to hundreds of thousands of people, and where forces built up defensive lines for years — for an undefined truce.
One of the people familiar with the talks said Ukraine would not relinquish Donetsk because it would leave Ukraine wide open to future attacks. “If [Putin] takes over Donbas, he has a clear road all the way to Odesa.”
O’Grady reported from Kharkiv, Belton reported from London and Stern reported from Kyiv. Michael Birnbaum in Alaska and Kate Brady in Berlin contributed to this report.
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