“All sides agree that the best way to end the terrible war between Russia and Ukraine is to reach a direct peace agreement to end the conflict. A general ceasefire cannot last,” Trump stressed online on August 16.
The announcement was seen as a significant shift in Trump’s stance after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15. Trump has previously called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, a goal that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders have continued to seek.
According to an unnamed AFP source, Trump informed Zelensky that Putin had asked Ukraine to completely withdraw its troops from the Donbass region, which includes the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces, in exchange for a halt to Russian attacks on the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Ukraine still controls. But Zelensky rejected the offer, the source said.
On the same day, Zelensky said that Russia’s refusal to accept a ceasefire would complicate the situation as the parties try to end the conflict. “We see that Russia has rejected many ceasefire proposals and has not yet said when it will end the attacks,” he said. “If they cannot agree to simple things like stop airstrikes, it may take much longer for Russia to implement the larger agreement, which is peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades.”
Russian officials have not yet commented on the reports.
On August 15, Trump and Putin held a three-hour summit and held a joint press conference for about 11 minutes. It was the first Russian-U.S. summit in more than four years and the first time Trump has met in person with Putin since 2019.
Putin said he had reached an agreement with Trump, hoping that Ukraine and Europe would not block the process of ending the conflict. Putin suggested holding the next summit in Moscow, and Trump said it could happen.
Trump said Washington and Moscow had made significant progress but no deal had been reached. In an interview after the summit, Trump said the Ukraine conflict would end with the surrender of territory and security guarantees from the United States.
