Ukraine's Zelenskyy to meet Trump on Monday after US-Russia summit fails to halt fighting
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Trump's abrupt reversal, aligning himself with a position held by Russian President Vladimir Putin, came in a social media post on Saturday, hours after they concluded a summit in Alaska that produced no agreement to halt the fighting. Putin has long said that Moscow is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes the Kremlin's interests into account.
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After calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump posted that '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.'
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In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire, saying they 'welcomed President Trump's efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia's war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.'
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Trump's statement that a peace agreement should be reached before a ceasefire appears to indicate Trump's thinking is 'shifting towards Putin,' an approach that would allow Moscow to keep fighting while negotiating, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
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Zelenskyy, who was not invited to Alaska for the summit, said he had a 'long and substantive' conversation with Trump early Saturday. He said they would 'discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war' on Monday.
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It will be Zelenskyy's first visit to the U.S. since Trump berated him publicly for being 'disrespectful' during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting on Feb. 28.
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Trump, who also held calls with European leaders Saturday, confirmed the White House meeting and said that 'if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.'
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Trump rolled out the red carpet on Friday for Putin, who was in the U.S. for the first time in a decade and since the start of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But he gave little concrete detail afterward of what was discussed. On Saturday, he posted on social media that it 'went very well.'
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Global News
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- Global News
European leaders to join Ukraine's Zelenskyy for meeting with Trump
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