
'World is a safer place' after Trump-Putin summit, says Hungary PM Orban
"For years we have watched the two biggest nuclear powers dismantle the framework of their cooperation and shoot unfriendly messages back and forth. That has now come to an end. Today the world is a safer place than it was yesterday," Orban, a rare pro-Kremlin leader in Europe, said on X.
AFP
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LBCI
an hour ago
- LBCI
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


L'Orient-Le Jour
5 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
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
5 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
‘It will do some good': In Moscow, Russians are positive after the Trump-Putin meeting
The summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska concluded on Friday without the announcement of a peace plan for Ukraine. However, in Moscow, it generated some satisfaction and hope, according to Russians interviewed by AFP on Saturday. For Vitali Romanov, 46, the meeting sparked 'hope that things will get better — for Russia, for the people, and for those fighting' on the front. Met just steps from the Kremlin, this employee of the Moscow Historical Museum said he wishes everything would stop 'now' in Ukraine, where very bloody fighting has continued since the start of Russia's large-scale offensive in February 2022. In a similar vein, Irina, a 55-year-old nurse, believes that the Trump-Putin meeting will 'do good' for Russia. Trump, who had threatened Russia with 'very serious consequences' if it did not agree to end the war, said he no longer plans any immediate measures following his meeting with Mr. Putin, while Moscow has already been under heavy Western sanctions since 2022. The Russian president's visit to the United States has already been perceived as a diplomatic victory for the Kremlin chief, who had been isolated from the Western world since the attack on Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine and European nations fear that the summit may have allowed Vladimir Putin to influence his American counterpart, who had previously mentioned the possibility of territorial concessions. Our 'greatness' Lyudmila, a 73-year-old retired woman from Moscow, is 'absolutely convinced' that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump 'will be able to reach an agreement, because Trump is not an idiot and understands that our country has greatness, status, and many good people.' She says she 'hopes a lot' for a possible visit to Moscow by the American president, who was invited the day before by his Russian counterpart. A sign of strong Russian interest in the Alaska meeting, Vadim, a 35-year-old agricultural specialist, said he watched the news on the summit — held late at night in Moscow — 'before going to bed and just after waking up.' He adds that he 'so wants to believe' that relations between Moscow and Washington will improve and that the conflict in Ukraine will end. The confrontation 'costs too much' 'I don't think relations will improve enough for us to become allies,' tempers Elena, a 36-year-old accountant, while walking with her daughter on Nikolskaia Street, near the Kremlin. 'But in any case, a confrontation costs the superpowers too much for it to continue forever,' she emphasizes. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin parted ways on Friday in Alaska without revealing any possible peace plan for Ukraine, while exchanging multiple engaging statements and friendly gestures. The American president described the meeting as 'very productive,' Putin called it a 'constructive' discussion, but in reality, nothing immediately emerged from their three hours of talks at a military base in Alaska. For analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, 'this meeting was neither a failure nor a success.' However, according to her, the summit reinforced 'Trump's conviction that Russia cannot be defeated.' And 'his main strategic conclusion is that he will never support Ukraine as fully as Europe does, because he does not believe Ukraine can win a war against a nuclear power,' she wrote on Telegram.