Volodymyr Zelensky to fly to US to meet Donald Trump in wake of Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin

In a related move, Trump’s wife Melania wrote a letter to Putin about the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia. White House officials told Reuters of the letter but did not reveal the contents; it was handed to the Russian leader in Anchorage, although the US First Lady was not at the summit.

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Trump hailed the Anchorage meeting as a “great and successful day” and sought to play down concerns that he did not emerge with a ceasefire agreement.

“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,” he said on social media.

In a new development that he did not signal in Alaska, Trump spoke to Zelensky about a three-way meeting between the United States, Russia and Ukraine. However, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said there had been no discussion of a three-way summit during the Alaska meeting, according to Russian state media.

A crucial concern in Europe is that the US is not applying sufficient pressure on Putin – for instance, through economic sanctions – while the Russian leader gains the benefit of generous treatment and talks with the American president.

“Sanctions are an effective tool,” Zelensky said. “Security must be guaranteed reliably and in the long term, with the involvement of both Europe and the US.”

The European leaders welcomed Trump’s efforts but stepped up the calls about security guarantees – a problematic issue given arguments about whether countries would put “boots on the ground” in Ukraine to police a ceasefire.

“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said the statement from the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Finland as well as the European Union.

“No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to [the] EU and NATO.”

Those principles appear certain to be dismissed by Russia, given Putin strongly opposes any enlargement of NATO near Russian borders.

The European leaders welcomed a statement from Trump about the willingness of the US to give security guarantees in a peace deal, and they said the “Coalition of the Willing” was ready to play an active role.

The Coalition, however, is yet to set out exactly how it would help maintain a ceasefire or long-term peace deal, although the UK has said it would put “boots on the ground” to keep the peace.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who convened a meeting of the Coalition on Wednesday, emphasised the stated willingness of the US to provide “robust security guarantees” alongside European nations.

“This is important progress and will be crucial in deterring Putin from coming back for more,” he said.

“In the meantime, until he stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”

“Our unwavering support for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes.”

Given the decades of Russian interference in neighbours including Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron also emphasised the concern that Putin would spark new conflicts in Europe.

“It will also be essential to draw all the lessons from the past 30 years, in particular from Russia’s well-established tendency not to honour its own commitments,” he wrote.

“France remains firmly at Ukraine’s side.”

Ukrainian politicians mocked Trump for treating Putin with high honour in Alaska when the Russian leader is considered a war criminal by 120 countries, but Zelensky conveyed a sense of progress and made no criticism of the outcome.

“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,” he said on social media on Saturday.

Zelensky said his conversation with Trump began with a one-on-one discussion for an hour before European leaders joined the call. The European leaders said they had a separate meeting after their talks with Trump.

The Ukrainian president revealed his plan to fly to Washington, DC, for the meeting at the White House on Monday to discuss the war, but he did not signal any concessions he might be willing to make to ensure a ceasefire.

Other Ukrainians reacted with derision to Trump’s welcome for Putin and admission there was “no deal” in their talks.

“When you repeatedly warn dictators of sanctions but never follow through, they just end up finding it amusing,” wrote Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and leader of the Golos political party, on social media.

“Putin won time, President Trump got to shake [a] dictator’s hand, Ukraine got nothing.”

Anger focused on the images of American soldiers kneeling at the Russian leader’s aircraft to roll out a red carpet for his meeting with Trump.

“This image of American soldiers kneeling in front of a Russian plane to lay a red carpet for a war criminal should shake Europe awake,” wrote Olena Tregub, the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption group linked to Transparency International.

“[The] USA is stepping down from its role as a global leader. And it leaves Europe facing a truth it still struggles to accept: this is a European war, and it must be won by Europe united.”

Russia launched a ballistic missile into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Friday, killing one and wounding at least one other person and causing a fire, the regional governor said. This was shortly before the summit began.

Russia had launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Saturday.

Frontline territories in the Sumy, Donetsk, Chernihiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions had been targeted in the overnight strikes, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app. It said its air defence units had destroyed 61 of the drones.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily morning report that 139 clashes had also taken place on the front line over the previous day.

Russia said it had also come under attack, with its defence ministry saying it had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine claimed some success in its attacks on Russian forces and infrastructure, including a strike on the Russian port of Olya on the Caspian Sea – a key transport route for Iranian weapons – shortly before the summit.

There are concerns about Russian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, although the Ukrainian government says it has countered those gains. The result appears to be that Russian forces are less than five kilometres from the town of Pokrovsk.

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