Donald Trump tells Volodymyr Zelensky Russia is 'very big power' and Ukraine isn't

RNZ News

12 hours ago

By
Steve Holland, Andrew Osborn
and
Tom Balmforth
, Reuters
President Donald Trump's deadline for Russia to end its war in Ukraine or suffer severe economic punishment expires 8 August, but it's unclear how he plans to proceed amid new efforts toward a summit with Vladimir Putin and delicate trade negotiations with China.
Photo:
Reuters/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (local time) Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because "Russia is a very big power, and "they're not", after hosting a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have demanded more Ukrainian land.
In a subsequent briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a source familiar with the discussion cited Trump as saying the Russian leader had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv's forces ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow's main targets.
Zelensky rejected the demand, the source said. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have demanded.
Zelensky said he would meet Trump in Washington on Monday, while Kyiv's European allies welcomed Trump's efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia. The source said European leaders had also been invited to attend those talks.
Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska
on Friday (local time), the first US-Russia summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lasted just three hours.
"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," Trump posted on Truth Social.
His various comments on the meeting mostly aligned with the public positions of Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause - but that this will be complex because positions are "diametrically opposed".
Russia has been gradually advancing for months. The war - the deadliest in Europe for 80 years - has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Before the summit, Trump had said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on. But afterwards he said that, after Monday's talks with Zelensky, "if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin".
Those talks will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance
gave Zelensky a brutal public dressing-down
.
Zelensky said he was willing to meet Putin.
But Putin signalled no movement in Russia's long-held demands, which also include a veto on membership of the NATO alliance, and made no mention in public of meeting Zelensky. His aide Yuri Ushakov said a three-way summit had not been discussed.
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had "largely agreed".
"I think we're pretty close to a deal," he said, adding: "Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say 'no'."
Asked what he would advise Zelensky to do, Trump said: "Gotta make a deal."
"Look, Russia is a very big power, and they're not," he added.
Zelensky has consistently said he cannot concede territory without changes to Ukraine's constitution, and Kyiv sees Donetsk's "fortress cities" such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk as a bulwark against Russian advances into even more regions.
Zelensky has also insisted on security guarantees, to deter Russia from invading again in the future. He said he and Trump had discussed "positive signals from the American side" on taking part, and that Ukraine needed a lasting peace, not "just another pause" between Russian invasions.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the most interesting developments concerned security guarantees - inspired by NATO's Article 5.
"The starting point of the proposal is the definition of a collective security clause that would allow Ukraine to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the US, ready to take action in case it is attacked again," she said.
Putin, who has hitherto opposed involving foreign ground forces, said he agreed with Trump that Ukraine's security must be "ensured".
"I would like to hope that the understanding we have reached will allow us to get closer to that goal and open the way to peace in Ukraine," Putin told a briefing where neither leader took questions.
"We expect that Kyiv and the European capitals... will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress..."
For Putin, the very fact of sitting down with Trump represented a victory. He had been ostracised by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had faced a
threat of new sanctions from Trump
.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) walks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in the garden of 10 Downing Street in central London, on 14 August, 2025.
Photo:
BEN STANSALL / POOL / AFP
Trump also spoke to European leaders after returning to Washington.
Several stressed the need to keep pressure on Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said an end to the war was closer than ever, thanks to Trump, but added: "... until [Putin] stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions."
A statement from European leaders said "Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees" and that no limits should be placed on its armed forces or right to seek NATO membership - key Russian demands.
Some European politicians and commentators were scathing.
"Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing. As feared: no ceasefire, no peace," Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington, posted on X.
"No real progress ' a clear 1-0 for Putin ' no new sanctions. For the Ukrainians: nothing. For Europe: deeply disappointing."
Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence, while fighting raged on the front.
Trump told Fox he would postpone imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but that he might have to "think about it" in two or three weeks.
He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Putin: "We'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon."
"Next time in Moscow," a smiling Putin responded in English. Trump said he might "get a little heat on that one" but that he could "possibly see it happening".
- Reuters