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President Trump on Saturday split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, backing Mr. Putin’s plan for a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding unoccupied territory to Russia, instead of the urgent cease-fire Mr. Trump had said he wanted before the meeting.
Skipping cease-fire discussions would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are expected to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visits Mr. Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Mr. Trump and European allies, as well as Mr. Zelensky, had agreed to before the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska.
Mr. Trump told European leaders that he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr. Zelensky agreed to give up the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.
In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. He has broken similar promises before.
Mr. Trump had threatened stark economic penalties if Mr. Putin left the meeting without a deal to end the war, but he has suspended those threats in the wake of the summit.
The American president’s moves got a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr. Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr. Putin.
Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Saturday that he had spoken by phone to Mr. Zelensky and European leaders after his meeting with Mr. Putin. He claimed “it was determined by all” that it was better to go directly to negotiating a peace agreement without first implementing a cease-fire.
European leaders, publicly and privately, made clear that was not the case. They issued a statement that did not echo Mr. Trump’s claim that peace talks were preferable to a cease-fire. Britain, France, Germany, and others threatened to increase economic penalties on Russia “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues.”
Mr. Zelensky, who was left out of the Alaska summit, said in a statement that he and Mr. Trump would on Monday “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
Here’s what else to know:
Zelensky’s challenge: Ukraine was left scrambling to piece together what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had discussed and striving to avoid being sidelined. Mr. Zelensky is heading to Washington on Monday. An official briefed on his call with Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky said Kyiv does not understand why the American president suddenly dropped the demand that a cease-fire precede negotiations. Read more ›
European response: European leaders moved to support Ukraine and voice caution of Russia. They neither endorsed Mr. Trump’s changed stance on how to achieve peace nor openly contradicted it. A virtual meeting between the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany is due on Sunday.
Russia’s advantage: Mr. Trump’s swing into alignment with Russia’s vision of ending the war came as Moscow’s forces have the upper hand on the battlefield. Discarding the prospect of a cease-fire allows Russia to press that advantage further.
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Doug Mills/ The New York Times
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