KYIV — President Donald Trump said Saturday that Ukraine and Russia should go straight to agreeing on a final peace deal, dropping his demand for a ceasefire in a dramatic reversal that aligns him with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours after their summit in Alaska.
Trump drops ceasefire demand for Ukraine war after summit with Putin
An immediate ceasefire to the war in Ukraine had long been a bedrock demand by the U.S., Ukraine and their European allies.
Updated
August 16, 2025 The Washington Post
“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, following his summit with Putin in Anchorage on Friday.
Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire, insisting on lengthy negotiations for a final peace deal that Ukraine and its European allies say are just a stalling tactic for Russia to press its gains.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron had said Trump was “very clear” with Europeans before the Alaska summit that he wants to obtain a ceasefire. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the same day that a ceasefire must be a starting point for negotiations.
In his post, Trump also confirmed that he will meet with Zelensky in Washington on Monday, after the two spoke by telephone.
Zelensky said Saturday that he and Trump had a “long and substantive” telephone conversation lasting around an hour about “the main points of their discussion” in Friday’s summit in Alaska before being joined on the line by European leaders.
He will meet Trump in Washington “to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war,” he said. “Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace.”
Zelensky added that it was important that European countries and the United States were “involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees” for Ukraine and there were “positive signals” from Washington that the U.S. would participate in a security arrangement.
He also repeated his support for Trump’s earlier proposal for a trilateral summit of the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
After the summit, however, top Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said the issue of a trilateral summit was not broached in Alaska.
Trump’s comments came after his call with Zelensky and European leaders early Saturday.
A statement from the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland, and the European Union said they stood “ready to work with” Trump and Zelensky for the trilateral summit “with European support.”
“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees,” they said, welcoming earlier comments from Trump that the U.S. could help with security guarantees. Ukraine’s European backers, pledging continued support for Kyiv and pressure on Moscow, 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 remains “up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory.”
The call with Trump and Zelensky included the leaders of those European countries as well as the NATO secretary general.
Friday’s summit ended earlier than planned and without an agreement, though it was widely seen as a public relations success for Putin, who was received as an equal by Trump after years of international isolation following his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity 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.”
Francis reported from Brussels.