Here is how things stand on Sunday, August 17:
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to freeze the front lines in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhia regions if Kyiv ceded full control of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, during his meeting with United States President Donald Trump on Friday, according to several media outlets, including The New York Times and the AFP and Reuters news agencies.
- Trump informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the offer during a phone call, but Zelenskyy rejected the demand, Reuters reported
- Trump described the meeting with Putin as “a great and very successful day in Alaska!” and told Fox News that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.
- The US president also said he agreed with Putin that a peace agreement should be sought without a prior ceasefire, marking a change in his position before the summit.
- “The best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement… and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
- Zelenskyy, who was not invited to the summit in Alaska, said in a post on X that Russia’s unwillingness to pause the fighting would complicate efforts to forge a lasting peace.
- Nevertheless, he said he will meet with Trump in Washington, DC, on Monday. “I am grateful for the invitation,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
- A number of European leaders have also been invited to attend, a European Union source told the AFP news agency.
- European leaders, including from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, promised to maintain the pressure on Russia through sanctions and called for “ironclad” security guarantees for Ukraine. They also said they were ready to work towards a three-way summit between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told German media that the US was willing to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine and that he and other European leaders will be speaking with Zelenskyy on Sunday to prepare him for the White House meeting with Trump.
- The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that while “Trump’s resolve to get a peace deal is vital… the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon”, in a post on X.
- The Leaders of the Nordic Baltic Eight group of countries issued a joint statement, reiterating support for Ukraine and saying that “a just and lasting peace requires a ceasefire” and that “experience has shown that Putin cannot be trusted”.
Fighting
- Meanwhile, the fighting continued to rage in Ukraine, with the country’s Air Force saying it shot down 61 of 85 Russian drones overnight, while Russian missiles and drones hit 12 locations across the country.
- The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had pushed Russian forces back by about 2km (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian military also said that Russian forces had seized Popiv Yar, southwest of Dobropillia, and Ivano-Darivka, northeast of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to the Kyiv Independent.
- Russian attacks injured 13 people, including medical workers and a police officer, in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Ukraine’s military said in a post on Telegram early on Saturday.
- In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack killed a 52-year-old man and his 13-year-old son, in the Rylsky district of the Russian Kursk region, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said in a post on Telegram on Saturday.
- Russian forces also shot down five Ukrainian guided aerial bombs and 169 drones in one day, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Saturday.
The post Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,270 appeared first on Al Jazeera.
