Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv, EU leaders meet Trump ahead of Putin summit
The discussion focused on the war before Trump's meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
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Al Jazeera
41 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says Ukraine's Zelenskyy can end war ‘almost immediately'
United States President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Ukraine to accept an agreement to end Russia's war, claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could choose to end the conflict 'almost immediately'. Addressing Zelenskyy a day before his high-stakes visit to the White House on Monday, Trump warned that the return of Russian-occupied Crimea and Ukrainian membership of NATO would be off the table in any negotiated settlement. 'President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,' Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. 'Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!' Trump's comments came as European leaders were set to accompany Zelenskyy on his visit to Washington, DC, on Monday amid concerns in Brussels and Kyiv that Trump could sign off on a deal that is overly favourable to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking shortly after Trump's comments on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that previous concessions to Moscow, including in Crimea, had only emboldened Putin to wage more war. 'We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably. And peace must be lasting,' Zelenskyy said in a post on X. 'Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East – part of Donbas – and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when Ukraine was given so called 'security guarantees' in 1994, but they didn't work.' Zelenskyy added that Crimea 'should not have been given up then, just as Ukrainians did not give up Kyiv, Odesa, or Kharkiv after 2022'. 'Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence,' he said. While Trump has indicated that a deal with Moscow would involve 'some swapping, changes in land' between Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out handing over Ukrainian territory to 'the occupier'. In a bid to press Trump to maintain support for Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are attending Monday's talks at the White House. Macron said on Sunday that European leaders and Zelenskyy would aim to present a united front in the face of Russian aggression. 'If we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflicts,' Macron said. Despite Trump dismissing the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier on Sunday that Putin had agreed to support a US-backed security guarantee resembling the 32-member transatlantic alliance's collective defence mandate during last week's meeting with the US president in Alaska. 'We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,' Witkoff told CNN's State of the Union. Under Article 5, an armed attack against a NATO member nation is considered an attack against all members of the alliance. Still, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday sought to temper expectations, saying an agreement to end the war was 'a long ways off'. 'We're not at the precipice of a peace agreement,' Rubio told ABC News's This Week. 'We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement.'
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,271
Here is how things stand on Monday, August 18: Politics and diplomacy The leaders of several European countries announced that they will accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet with United States President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss ending Russia's war on Ukraine. The leaders accompanying Zelenskyy will be: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. White House envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to 'robust security guarantees' for Ukraine that were 'game-changing' at a summit with Trump in Alaska on Friday. Zelenskyy welcomed Witkoff's announcement, saying it was 'a historic decision that the United States is ready to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine'. However, he added that the guarantees 'must be developed with Europe's participation'. Macron said that European leaders would ask 'to what extent' Washington would participate in the security guarantees on Monday. Macron also said that 'there is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia'. Von der Leyen welcomed the proposal as an offer of NATO-style security guarantees from the US, adding that the 'coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share'. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova, in a statement shared on Telegram on Sunday, said that Macron's claims of capitulation were an 'abject lie'. In an interview with CNN, Witkoff also said that Russia had 'made some concessions' in relation to 'all five of those regions', in an apparent reference to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Crimea. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC that a ceasefire 'is not off the table' but 'what we ultimately are aiming for is an end to this war', a day after Trump said he was aiming for a peace agreement without a prior ceasefire. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, simply saying: 'BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!', without elaborating. Fighting Russian forces killed five people and injured four in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said in a post on Telegram on Sunday. The attacks killed two people in Raiske, two more people in Sviatohorivka, and one person in Kostiantynivka, Filashkin said. Four people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a commercial facility in the village of Rakitnoye in Russia's Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram on Sunday. Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported on Sunday that in total, Ukrainian forces struck 13 locations across Belgorod in one day, using 111 drones and 52 munitions. TASS also reported on Sunday that Russian forces shot down four aerial bombs and 300 drones in the past day. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed that Ukrainian forces cleared the city of Pokrovsk of Russian forces and occupiers. Ukrainian forces advanced up to 1km (0.6 miles), in the Yablunivka area of the Sumy region, the General Staff added in a post on Telegram on Sunday.
Qatar Tribune
6 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Zelensky to bring European leaders to White House
dpa Berlin/Paris European leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his key White House meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will also be attending the talks in Washington. The government in Berlin said that 'security guarantees, territorial issues, and the continued support for Ukraine in repelling Russian aggression' will be discussed. 'This also includes maintaining the pressure of sanctions. The trip serves as an exchange of information with US President Donald Trump following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska,' it said. In Paris, the Élysée Palace stated that Macron is going to continue the coordination work between the Europeans and the US with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace. This peace must preserve Europe's security and the existential interests of Ukraine, it said. But before the discussions in Washington, Zelensky will be in Brussels on Sunday to participate in a video conference with a broad range of European leaders, von der Leyen said. Macron, Merz and Starmer are co-chairing the talks of the so-called Coalition of the Willing at 3pm (1300 GMT). The coalition is a loose grouping of nations backing Kiev against Russia's full-scale invasion launched in February 2022. The flurry of activity follows Friday's high-profile summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite Trump's warm welcome for the Kremlin leader, the meeting produced no breakthrough on halting the war. Trump's position on the conflict has swung sharply, at times faulting Ukraine for the invasion while at other moments threatening Moscow with punitive measures if progress toward a ceasefire stalls. On Saturday, he told Fox News that Ukraine needed to make a deal with Russia because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not.' Trump also dropped the demand for an immediate ceasefire after the summit, opting for Putin's preferred option of a full peace deal to end the war. European capitals, wary of being sidelined, have been pushing to ensure their views - and Kiev's - are not excluded from the US-Russia dialogue that could shape Europe's long-term security. European leaders have urged an immediate ceasefire as a first step toward peace, demanded binding security guarantees for Ukraine, and warned Trump against trusting Putin's assurances. Zelensky, who was not invited to the Trump-Putin summit, is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington on Monday. He has insisted Ukraine must be included in all negotiations about its future, especially territorial questions. The leaders travelling to Washington will no doubt recall Zelensky's last meeting with Trump at the White House in February, which erupted into a heated shouting match on live television. The confrontation led the US to temporarily suspend its crucial military aid to Ukraine. Several media outlets reported after Friday's summit that Putin demanded full control of the occupied eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for a ceasefire. Trump has often floated the idea of Russia and Ukraine 'swapping' territory to end the war. The proposal has alarmed Kiev, which has categorically rejected ceding any of its land to Moscow. Trump has said he hopes to eventually have a three-way meeting involving Zelensky and Putin.
