Trump-Putin summit: was it a win for Russia or the US? – South China Morning Post
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Zelensky wins EU, Nato backing as he seeks place at Trump-Putin talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won diplomatic backing from Europe and the Nato alliance on Sunday. He fears Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump may try to dictate terms for ending the three-and-a-half year war.
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Trump, who for weeks had been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to halt the war, announced instead on Friday that he would meet Putin on August 15 in Alaska.
A White House official has said Trump is open to Zelensky attending but preparations are under way for only a bilateral meeting.
Russian strikes injured at least 12 in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the country’s foreign affairs ministry said on Sunday.
Zelensky, responding to the strike, said: “That is why sanctions are needed, pressure is needed.”
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The Kremlin leader last week ruled out meeting Zelensky, saying conditions for such an encounter were “unfortunately still far” from being met.
Ukraine’s Zelensky calls Trump summit in Alaska a ‘personal victory’ for Putin
The meeting will be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a Russian president since 2001. Ukraine’s president has ruled out withdrawal of troops from the east of the country. He is concerned that Russia will try to use the talks to force Ukraine out of the region.
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Zelensky also ruled out withdrawing troops from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of a peace deal, after Trump suggested he and Putin might negotiate a land swap to end the war.
The summit, set to take place in Alaska on Friday, will be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021 and comes as Trump seeks to broker an end to Russia’s nearly 3½-year invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky, who is not scheduled to take part, has expressed concern that Russia will put forward hardline demands and that Trump will hammer out a deal that will see Ukraine cede swathes of territory.
“We will not withdraw from the Donbas … if we withdraw from the Donbas today – our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control – we will clearly open a bridgehead for the Russians to prepare an offensive,” Zelensky told reporters.
The Donbas encompasses the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, both of which Russia claims as its own and has sought to control since its invasion began in 2022.
No deal, no answers: Trump-Putin summit ends with ‘progress made’
Putin said he greeted Trump as ‘dear neighbour’, describing the US and Russia as “close neighbours’ But the Russian leader did not give any details on areas of agreement reached during the summit.
Addressing a joint press conference after nearly three hours of discussions, Putin had the first word, calling the talks “constructive” and the atmosphere “mutually respectful”.
“[The] security of Ukraine should be ensured as well,” Putin said, adding that he hoped that “the agreement that we’ve reached together” would be seen “constructively” by Kyiv and European capitals and “they won’t throw a wrench in the works”.
Putin said he greeted Trump as “dear neighbour”, describing the US and Russia as “close neighbours”.
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But the Russian leader did not give any details on areas of agreement reached during the summit, the first between a US and Russian leader since 2001.
Trump then said the two leaders agreed to “many points” but some were unresolved. “One is probably the most significant,” he said.
Russia has won Ukraine war, Hungary’s Orban says ahead of Trump-Putin summit
Right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday that Russia has won the war in Ukraine. Orban has been criticised by some European leaders for his government’s ties with Russia and opposition to military aid for Ukraine. He is the only European Union leader not to endorse a joint statement saying Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its future.
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In power since 2010, Orban has been criticised by some European leaders for his government’s ties with Russia and opposition to military aid for Ukraine, while his cabinet is struggling to revive the economy from an inflation shock.
Orban, who has maintained close ties with Putin even after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, became the only European Union leader on Monday not to endorse a joint statement saying Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its future.
“We are talking now as if this were an open-ended war situation, but it is not. The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war,” Orban told the Patriot YouTube channel in an interview.
“The only question is when and under what circumstances will the West, who are behind the Ukrainians, admit that this has happened and what will result from all this.”
Hungary, which gets most of its energy from Russia, has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, with Orban also strongly opposing Ukraine’s EU membership, saying it would wreak havoc on Hungarian farmers and the wider economy.
Ukraine war talks: Trump-Putin summit ends with no deal but US president hopeful – as it happened
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have failed to reach a deal to end the Ukraine war. The summit was held on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. Trump said there would be ‘no deal until there’s a deal’
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have failed to find a deal to end the Ukraine war, they said at the close of their summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on Friday
The summit, held on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, was focused on the prospect of a ceasefire to end Russia’s devastating three-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine.
But Trump told the press on Friday that there would be ‘no deal until there’s a deal’.
Reporting by Khushboo Razdan in Anchorage, and Robert Delaney and Frank Chen in Washington