US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both reflected positively on talks held in Alaska yesterday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to travel for separate talks with Mr Trump in Washington DC on Monday.
Mr Trump said Ukraine should agree a deal to end the war with Russia because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not", after hosting a summit with President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield a ceasefire.
In a major shift, Mr Trump also said he had agreed with Mr Putin that negotiators should go straight to a peace settlement - not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have been demanding.
Mr Zelensky said he would travel to Washington on Monday to discuss next steps, while Kyiv's European allies welcomed Mr Trump's efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia, and again urged the US to offer security guarantees for Ukraine.
The New York Times, citing two senior European officials, reported that European leaders were also invited to attend Monday's meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
The US president upbraided Mr Zelensky in front of world media in February, saying Ukraine's leader did not "hold the cards" in negotiations and that what he described as Kyiv's intransigence risked triggering World War Three.
Mr Trump met Mr Putin for nearly three hours in Alaska on Friday at the first US-Russia summit since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"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," Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.
Talks 'timely' and 'very useful' - Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Alaska summit with the US President "brings us closer to the necessary decisions".
Speaking to top officials in Moscow a day after the talks, Mr Putin said the discussion was "very frank" and "substantive".
"We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time," he said, adding: "We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail reiterate our position."
The Russian president said he discussed ways of ending the war in Ukraine "on a fair basis" with US President Donald Trump.
He added they had been "timely" and "very useful", according to content put out by the Kremlin.
Watch: 'There's no deal until there's a deal,' says Trump
During a brief appearance before the media following the nearly three-hour talks, the two leaders said they had made progress on unspecified issues.
But they offered no details and took no questions, with the normally loquacious Mr Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
"There were many, many points that we agreed on. I would say a couple of big ones that we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway," Mr Trump said, standing in front of a backdrop that read, "Pursuing Peace".
"There's no deal until there's a deal," he added.
Mr Putin said he expected Ukraine and its European allies to accept the results of the US-Russia negotiation constructively and not try to "disrupt the emerging progress".
"I expect that today's agreements will become a reference point, not only for solving the Ukrainian problem, but will also launch the restoration of business-like, pragmatic relations between Russia and the United States," Mr Putin said.
But Mr Putin also repeated Moscow's long-held position that what Russia claims to be the "root causes" of the conflict must be eliminated to reach a long-term peace, a sign he remains resistant to a ceasefire.
He said he agreed with Mr Trump that Ukraine's security must be "ensured".
Russia likely to welcome Trump's Ukraine shift
Mr Trump's desire for a peace agreement will be welcomed in Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause - but that this will be complex because positions are "diametrically opposed".
Russia's forces have been gradually advancing for months.
The war - the deadliest in Europe for 80 years - has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Before the summit, Mr Trump had said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.
But afterwards he said that, after his talks with Mr Zelensky, "if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin".
Analysis:
Ceasefire, sanctions avoided in win-win summit for Putin
Alaska summit of presidential pageantry ends in no deal
Monday's talks will be held in the White House Oval Office, where Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave the Ukrainian leader a brutal public dressing-down in February, accusing him of ingratitude.
Mr Zelensky said after a lengthy conversation with Trump following the Alaska summit that he supported the idea of a three-way meeting.
"Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace," he wrote on social media.
But Mr Putin made no mention of meeting Mr Zelensky when speaking to reporters.
His aide Yuri Ushakov told the Russian state news agency TASS a three-way summit had not been discussed.
Need for security guarantees for Ukraine
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Mr Trump signalled that he and Mr Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had "largely agreed".
"I think we're pretty close to a deal," he said, adding: "Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say 'no'."
Asked what he would advise Mr Zelensky to do, Mr Trump said: "Gotta make a deal."
"Look, Russia is a very big power, and they're not," he added. "They're great soldiers."
Mr Zelensky has underlined the need for security guarantees for Kyiv, to deter Russia from invading again in the future.
He said he and Mr Trump had discussed "positive signals from the American side" on taking part.
Mr Putin did not signal any movement in Russia's long-held positions on the war, but said he agreed with Mr Trump that Ukraine's security must be "ensured".
"I would like to hope that the understanding we have reached will allow us to get closer to that goal and open the way to peace in Ukraine," Mr Putin told a briefing where neither leader took questions.
"We expect that Kyiv and the European capitals will perceive all of this in a constructive manner and will not create any obstacles. That they will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigue."
For Mr Putin, the very fact of sitting down with the US president represented a victory.
The Kremlin leader had been ostracised by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from Trump.
Trump speaks to European leaders
Mr Trump also spoke to European leaders after returning to Washington.
Several stressed the need to keep pressure on Russia while others called for Volodymyr Zelensky to be included in future talks.
A statement from the European leaders said that "Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity" and that no limits should be placed on its armed forces or right to seek NATO membership - key Russian demands.
Some European politicians and commentators were scathing.
"Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing. As feared: no ceasefire, no peace," Wolfgang Ischinger, German ex-ambassador to the United States, posted on X.
"No real progress - a clear 1-0 for Putin - no new sanctions. For the Ukrainians: nothing. For Europe: deeply disappointing."
Watch: 'Next time in Moscow?' Vladimir Putin asks Donald Trump for next summit
Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko wrote: "Putin is a determined opponent, and, yes, he basically won this round because he got something for nothing. Still, Trump did not sell out Ukraine."
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said that, by dropping any focus on a truce, "Trump is taking Russian President Vladimir Putin's position".
'Next time in Moscow'
Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence in the 3-1/2-year war, while Kyiv said there had been 139 clashes on the front line over the past day.
Mr Trump told Fox he would now hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but that he might have to "think about it" in two or three weeks.
He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Mr Putin: "I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon."
"Next time in Moscow," a smiling Mr Putin responded in English.
Mr Trump said he might "get a little heat on that one" but that he could "possibly see it happening".
Accreditation Reuters
