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dalton99a

(94,115 posts) Sat Aug 16, 2025, 10:01 AM Aug 2025

Trump Backs Off Cease-Fire Demand in Ukraine War, Aligning With Putin

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/16/world/trump-putin-meeting-alaska

Trump Backs Off Cease-Fire Demand in Ukraine War, Aligning With Putin

President Trump appeared on Saturday to split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, adopting Mr. Putin’s preference for a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding unoccupied territory to Russia, instead of the urgent cease-fire Mr. Trump had said he wanted before the meeting.

Skipping cease-fire discussions would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are expected to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visits Mr. Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Mr. Trump and European allies, as well as Mr. Zelensky, had agreed to before the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska.

Mr. Trump told European leaders, that he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr. Zelensky agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.

In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. He has broken similar promises before.

Mr. Trump had threatened stark economic penalties if Mr. Putin left the meeting without a deal to end the war, but, as European and Russian officials acknowledged, he suspended those threats in the wake of the summit.

The American president’s moves got a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr. Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr. Putin.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/08/16/ukraine-washington-zelensky-russia-trump/

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.
August 16, 2025 at 9:51 a.m. EDT

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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with the backing of European leaders, has insisted that a ceasefire must be in place before any negotiations to end the war. In the run-up to the summit, European officials had expressed guarded optimism that the United States was aligning with them after Trump had earlier pushed for a ceasefire. Zelensky said Saturday he would be traveling to Washington to discuss the summit with Trump.

“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.