WASHINGTON — President Trump made an abrupt announcement about two hours into his private, roughly three-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin Friday — declaring he wanted a full peace deal in Ukraine rather than a cease-fire, The Post has learned.
Convinced there were relatively few matters left to resolve, and believing a truce would only prolong the war, Trump set aside his publicly stated goal of a temporary halt in fighting.
“Figuratively, the president sort of threw up his hands and said, ‘I’m not interested in a cease-fire anymore,’” a source familiar with the discussion said.
Trump expressed concern that the “focus of the cease-fire” would be on “how long the cease fire will be” and “are they going to rearm?”
The pivot yielded “no pushback from the Russians,” leading Trump to exit Anchorage without a cease-fire in hand. Instead, he dialed up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to see if a full peace deal was within reach.
The calls yielded a positive response, the source said, and Trump announced on social media that Zelensky would be at the White House Monday for talks.
Putin insisted during the summit Ukraine hand over the remainder of the coal and minerals-rich Dontesk, a historically Russian-speaking region that had a Moscow-backed rebellion beginning in 2014.
Russia claimed to annex the whole region in 2022.
Zelensky has vehemently objected to giving up the northern third of the Donetsk region, arguing it would obliterate more than decade-old defense lines and allow Putin to launch further incursions into Ukraine.
The matter may be addressed through an international peacekeeping deployment, the possibility of which was raised during the bilateral discussion in Alaska, with Putin open to a deployment of UK and French troops along the front lines to prevent a recurrence of fighting.
Trump has in principle accepted the deployment by its NATO allies as a de facto US “security guarantee” to Ukraine, two sources told The Post. The move comes after Trump previously suggesting a US-Ukraine minerals deal would also effectively give Kyiv a measure of protection.
In Anchorage, the Russian dictator floated an “Article 5-plus” formulation for the peace-keeping force in which China would also send troops, but appeared to back away from the idea and settle on the possibility of NATO ally Turkey — a mediator for Moscow — instead sending soldiers to supplement the more openly pro-Kyiv bloc.
European leaders appeared wooed by Putin informing Trump he was “willing to stipulate” he would not attack additional countries in eastern Europe — though “Europeans think in centuries” rather than US presidential terms, the source cautioned.
“The president got Putin to say out loud and agree to, in some way, memorialize that. … He said, ‘I will not attack a European country. … I have no interest in this,’ and that has always been the fear on the part of the Europeans,” the source said.
“That went a long way in the calls last night with the Europeans.”
In a rare move, Trump took no questions at a planned news conference Friday and boarded Air Force One early for a return flight to Washington, during which he spoke on the phone with Zelensky and various European leaders.
Trump firmed up his conviction that a full peace deal was possible during a series of Friday night and Saturday morning calls aboard Air Force One to the European leaders, before announcing Zelensky’s Monday visit to Washington.
Zelensky has claimed he cannot cede land without a national referendum, adding complexity to the final end-game if he’s amenable to handing over the remainder of Donetsk in exchange for the peacekeeping deployment.
“Every issue is an ancillary issue, except Donetsk,” a source familiar with the Trump-Putin talks said. “That’s the ball game right there, the future of Donetsk.”
Here are the latest details on Trump and Putin’s meeting in Alaska
- The meeting will take place in Anchorage, Alaska at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
- Trump said his sitdown with Putin in Alaska will be “setting the table” for a possible future meeting about the war in Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky present.
- Putin suggested the US and Russia could reach a deal on nuclear arms control.
- President Trump estimated Thursday there is a 25% chance that his Alaska summit will fail.
- Zelensky met with European world leaders ahead of the meeting between Trump and Putin.
Russia has made recent gains in Donetsk, including capturing two villages Saturday.
The Kremlin additionally took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and partially controls three other provinces in addition to Donetsk that it purportedly annexed.
The Trump-Putin summit featured dramatic symbolism from the American hosts, with the US leader escorting the 25-year strongman down a red carpet as a B-2 bomber and fighter jets flew overhead, seeming to surprise the guest.
Trump then asked Putin to join him in his Beast limousine to drive a short distance to the talks venue, during which they passed another B-2 parked on the runway — serving as a reminder of Trump using the aircraft for a surprise bombing of Iran on June 13 after Tehran balked at a deal with the US.
“The last thing [Putin] saw when he went in that room was a B-2 close up and personal,” a source remarked.
Trump was joined in the meeting by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a well-known Russia hawk, and Steve Witkoff, the special presidential envoy who has met previously with Putin — offering additional strategic flexibility for the talks, though they remained led by Trump and Putin.
Trump has openly expressed a desire for a three-leader summit between himself, Putin and Zelensky — and the White House currently is a top candidate for the venue.
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