
Russia not making guesses on outcome of Putin-Trump summit, foreign minister says
"We never make any predictions ahead of time," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state TV, wearing what appeared to be a T-shirt with "USSR" written across it.
"We know that we have our arguments, and our position is clear and unambiguous. We will present it," he added.
AFP

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10 hours ago
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Putin says discussed Ukraine peace on 'fair basis' with Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said he discussed ways of ending the conflict in Ukraine "on a fair basis" at his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking to top officials in Moscow a day after the talks in Alaska, Putin also said the summit with Trump had been "timely" and "very useful," according to images published by the Kremlin. AFP


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14 hours ago
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What we know after the Trump-Putin summit on Ukraine
'Peace agreement' rather than a cease-fire in Ukraine, sanctions against Moscow kept quiet: the main outcomes of the Anchorage summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin became clearer on Saturday, through official statements. No cease-fire Ukraine and European leaders had hoped to convince Donald Trump on Wednesday to obtain a cease-fire from Vladimir Putin, more than three and a half years after the Russian army invaded Ukraine. That did not happen. 'It was judged by everyone that the best way to end the war […] is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not just a simple cease-fire agreement, which often does not hold,' Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social network once back in Washington. It is a victory for Vladimir Putin, whose troops have made recent advances in eastern Ukraine. From the start, the Russian president has demanded a broader 'peace agreement,' focused, in his view, on the 'root causes' of the war, beginning with Ukraine's desire to join NATO. Moscow considers this military alliance an existential threat that extends to its borders. According to Kyiv, the Russian army launched 85 drones and one missile on Ukraine during the night from Friday to Saturday, at the time of the summit. On Saturday, the Russian army claimed the capture of two localities in eastern Ukraine. US sanctions on hold Friday marked the expiration of a U.S. ultimatum to Russia to end the war in Ukraine, under threat of so-called 'secondary' sanctions — targeting countries that buy from Russia, particularly oil and weapons. 'Given how things went today, I don't think I need to think about that right now,' U.S. President Donald Trump ultimately said in response to a Fox News question at the end of the summit. Trump has at his disposal a legislative framework giving him 'the ability to impose 500% tariffs on any country that helps Russia and supports Putin's war machine,' according to one of the co-sponsors of this proposal, influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Trump had said he would 'look very closely' at the proposal. European leaders, on the other hand, said Saturday that they 'will continue to strengthen sanctions and targeted economic measures to weigh on Russia's war economy, until a just and lasting peace is established.' Territorial issues unresolved Ukraine's biggest fear was a deal in Anchorage pushing it to cede, de jure or de facto, part of its territory. Beyond Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, the Russian army occupies about 20% of Ukrainian territory in four regions in the south and east (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia). Neither Putin nor Trump directly addressed this burning issue during their press statements. Did the U.S. president make an implicit reference when he said in his final statement that 'very few' points remained to be settled, and that 'one of them is probably the most important'? Security guarantees Ukraine, supported by European leaders, demands such guarantees in the event of a halt to hostilities to prevent any renewed Russian invasion, which Moscow categorically refuses. This topic was not directly discussed by Trump and Putin in their final statement. However, in his post-summit briefing to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders, Trump mentioned a security guarantee for Kyiv similar to NATO's Article 5, though outside the framework of the Atlantic Alliance, according to two Ukrainian sources familiar with the matter. Several European countries, including France and the United Kingdom, indicated they are ready to contribute to a 'reassurance' force stationed in Ukraine, but not on the front line. Tripartite meeting on the horizon? Trump confirmed he would receive Zelensky at the White House on Monday. 'If all goes well, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin,' he added. He had previously said that an agreement to end the war 'really depends on the Ukrainian president.'

L'Orient-Le Jour
14 hours ago
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Trump and Putin part ways without unveiling a plan for Ukraine
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