WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Saturday dropped his push for a ceasefire in Ukraine in favor of pursuing a full peace accord — a major shift announced hours after his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin yielded no clear breakthrough.
Prior to the high-stakes meeting in Alaska, securing an immediate cessation of hostilities had been a core demand of Trump — who had threatened “severe consequences” on Russia — and European leaders, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who will now visit Washington on Monday.
The shift away from ceasefire would seem to favor Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal — a strategy that Ukraine and its European allies have criticized as a way to buy time and press Russia’s battlefield advances.
Trump spoke with Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back to Washington, saying afterward 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.”
Ceasefire agreements “often times do not hold up,” Trump added on his Truth Social platform.
