Trump runs into difficulty of Putin diplomacy
WASHINGTON
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky will head to Washington on Aug. 18 to discuss "ending the killing and the war" with Donald Trump, days after the U.S. leaders Alaska summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
"On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war," Zelensky said after holding a call with Trump, during which the U.S. leader informed him about the "main points" of his talks with Putin.
"I am grateful for the invitation."
Zelensky said he had a "long and substantive conversation with Trump," which began as a one-on-one talk, before being joined by European leaders.
The Washington meeting is set to take place three days after Trump's talks with Putin in Alaska ended with no ceasefire announcement or apparent breakthrough to end Moscow's more than three-year-long invasion.
The day after the U.S.-Russia summit, Zelensky called for Kiev's European allies to be involved at "every stage" of talks.
He also reiterated that he would be ready for a trilateral meeting with Trump and Putin, something that Kiev has been pushing for but which the Kremlin has been resisting.
European leaders said they were ready to intensify sanctions against Russia after Trump briefed them on the summit and they held their own protracted talks.
Trump remained upbeat about meeting Putin in a post on his Truth Social platform. "A great and very successful day in Alaska!," he proclaimed, adding that European leaders backed his plan for a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelensky.
"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," he added.
Trump announced Sunday that there has been significant progress in the Russia-Ukraine peace process, urging people to stay tuned.
"BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!" Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, offering no specifics about the developments.
Following Friday's summit, Trump told Fox News that "a lot of points were agreed on," with only "one or two pretty significant items" remaining to be resolved.
Trump said the resolution now depends on Zelensky and European nations "to get it done."
After the summit, Trump spoke first with Zelensky, the White House said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later joined the call, officials said.
The European leaders, who had been wary of being left out of the Alaska meeting, held their own talks on Aug. 16 and said they supported the proposed three-way summit.
At the call, the U.S. has also proposed security guarantees for Ukraine similar to, but separate from, the collective defense agreement between NATO member countries, Italy's premier and a diplomatic source said on Aug. 16.
"As one of the security guarantees for Ukraine, the American side proposed a non-NATO Article 5 type guarantee, supposedly agreed with Putin," the diplomatic source told AFP on condition they not be identified in any way.
NATO's collective security is based on its Article 5 principle: If one member is attacked, the entire alliance comes to its defense.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was on the call with Trump, confirmed the U.S. president had raised the idea of security guarantee "inspired" by Article 5, which she has been pushing for several months.
