This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will travel to Washington on August 18 to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy made the announcement on Telegram on August 16 in a detailed statement following a “lengthy, substantive conversation” with Trump, during which Zelenskyy was updated on the August 15 summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The Ukrainian president said he first had a one-on-one conversation with Trump before European leaders joined the call.
“I intend to discuss all details regarding ending the killings, ending the war, with President Trump in Washington on Monday. I am grateful for the invitation,” Zelenskyy said.
He expressed strong support for Trump’s proposal of a trilateral meeting involving Ukraine, the United States, and Russia as a forum to discuss key issues at the leadership level.
Zelenskyy emphasized Ukraine’s readiness to work productively toward peace and underscored the importance of involving European partners “at every stage” to guarantee Ukraine’s security alongside the United States.
Later on August 16, Trump weighed in on his call with Zelenskyy and European leaders with a post on Truth Social, writing: “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 Cease-fire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
He added that if “all works out” after he meets with Zelenskyy, “we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
Zelenskyy later called for more sanctions against Russia if no tripartite meeting takes place or “if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war.”
After the call with Trump, EU leaders said in a statement that they “welcomed” the US president’s efforts and expressed readiness to facilitate a trilateral summit.
“We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia’s war economy until there is a just and lasting peace,” they said.
‘Very Successful’
On Truth Social, Trump said he had a “great and very successful day” in Alaska, but Sabine Fischer, an expert on Russian foreign policy and senior fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, predicted his optimism would not last long.
“Putin flattered him and told him what he wanted to hear,” she told RFE/RL. “Yet, true to form, Trump is likely to oscillate, eventually sliding back into frustration with Putin.”
The highly anticipated summit between Trump and Putin ended without an agreement on a cease-fire in Ukraine, with neither leader taking questions from reporters during a brief news conference.
Briefly addressing the press after his nearly three-hour meeting with Putin, Trump said his team had made “great progress” but acknowledged that “we haven’t quite got there” and that no deal was reached to halt the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Speaking from the US Joint Base Elmendorf near Anchorage, Alaska, where the talks took place, both Putin and Trump gave few details about what had been agreed upon or where disagreements remained.
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump warned.
Putin “didn’t seem to have softened his views or positions on any of the more contentious issues,” said Luke Coffey a Russian analyst and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, “such as the ‘root causes of the conflict,’ as Putin likes to put it, or the history side of things, which he tries to use to justify the invasion.”
Meanwhile, Russian drones and missiles battered cities across Ukraine overnight hours after the summit ended.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow launched 85 Shahed-type attack drones and one Iskander-M ballistic missile. A majority of drones were shot down, Kyiv says, but 12 struck sites in the Sumy, Chernihiv, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a strike on a residential area killed one person and wounded another.
Separately, the Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting 29 Ukrainian drones over six regions, including the Sea of Azov. The primary target of the drone attacks was the Azot chemical plant in Nevinnomyssk, according to local officials. The facility is a significant producer of chemical components used in the manufacture of explosives.
