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US envoy says Putin agreed to security protections for Ukraine as part of Trump summit
Special US envoy Steve Witkoff has also been speaking to the media. He said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin agreed at the Alaska summit with Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling Nato’s collective defence mandate (article 5: an attack on one member is an attack on all) as part of an eventual deal to end the war.
Speaking with Jake Tapper, Witkoff told CNN’s State of the Union programme:
We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer article five like language to cover a security guarantee. So Putin has said that a red flag is Nato admission.
And so what we were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that, and could live with that, and everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with.
But assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer article five, like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato, we sort of were able to bypass that and get an agreement that the United States could offer article five protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.
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Reporters from Associated Press have done a little round up of the reactions of Republican and Democrat senators to Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Among the Republicans:
Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, wrote on social media after the summit that “while the press conference offered few details about their meeting,” she was “cautiously optimistic about the signals that some level of progress was made.” She said it “was also encouraging to hear both presidents reference future meetings” but that Ukraine “must be part of any negotiated settlement and must freely agree to its terms.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally, said he was “very proud” of the president for having the face-to-face meeting and was “cautiously optimistic” that the war might end “well before Christmas” if a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin transpires.
Former vice-president Mike Pence commended his former boss for seeking peace. “I think he deserves credit as leader of the free world for not giving up on Ukraine,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.
However, Democrat senators have been expressed alarm:
“President Trump appears to have been played yet again by Vladimir Putin,” said Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The President rolled out a red carpet and warmly greeted a murderous dictator on American soil and reports indicate he got nothing concrete in return.” She added: “If President Trump won’t act, Congress must do so decisively by passing crushing sanctions when we return in the coming weeks.”
Connecticut senator Chris Murphy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Putin “got everything he wanted,” including a photo-op with Trump. “He is intentionally murdering civilians, he’s kidnapping children, and now he got to stand next to the President of the United States — legitimized in the view of the world,” the Democrat said.
While politicians have been discussing their future, people in Ukraine have been attending a rally outside the US embassy in Kyiv. Many were women, standing with children and highlighting the plight of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces a daunting trip to the White House – but this time he won’t be alone.
The Guardian’s Julian Borger writes:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make his second visit to the White House on Monday with the daunting task of reversing the damage done to Ukraine’s security prospects by Friday’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
Zelenskyy will not, however, be alone as he was on his first trip to the White House in February when he was ambushed and humiliated by Donald Trump and the vice-president, JD Vance, who sought to bully him into capitulation to Moscow’s demands.
This time the Ukrainian leader comes to Washington flanked by a dream team of European leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and France’s Emmanuel Macron, who combine economic and military clout with proven rapport with Trump.
Their mission will be to try to use their individual and combined influence to coax the president out of the pro-Russian positions he adopted after just a couple of hours under Putin’s sway in the sub-Arctic on Friday.
To do that, they will have to project a more convincing sense of resolve and common purpose than they have managed hitherto, argued Ben Rhodes, a former adviser to Barack Obama.
For the full analysis, click here:
Zelenskyy: 'Ukraine's constitution makes it impossible to give up or trade land'
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has released a series of statements on X after his meeting with European leaders ahead of Monday’s peace talks with Donald Trump in the US.
In his statements, Zelenskyy said:
We have to stop the killings. Putin has many demands but we do not know all of them. If there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all. It is impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons …
We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now. The contact line is the best line for talking. Europeans support this, and we thank everyone. Russia is still unsuccessful in the Donetsk region, Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years …
Ukraine’s Constitution makes it impossible to give up or trade land. Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral—Ukraine, the U.S., Russia. So far, Russia gives no sign this will happen, and if Russia refuses, new sanctions must follow.
It’s important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and therefore for all of Europe. This is a significant change, but there are no details how it will work—what America’s role will be, what Europe’s role will be, what the EU can do. We need security to work in practice, like Article 5 of NATO.”
A string of Ukrainian politicians and public figures condemned the idea of handing over unoccupied land to Russia for peace on Sunday, arguing that their country had not been defeated and should not be forced into a surrender.
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Artem Mazhulin report:
The hardening of the mood comes at the end of a weekend where there was first ridicule and disgust in Ukraine at the red carpet treatment of Vladimir Putin by Donald Trump at their summit in Alaska – followed by frustration as it appeared that Trump was siding with the Russian leader.
Trump reportedly told European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to give up the areas of the Donbas region that the Russian invaders have not been able to seize in more than three years of fighting.
Halyna Yanchenko, an independent member of Ukraine’s parliament, said demands that Ukraine “simply surrender new territories without a fight – just because Putin wants it – is absurd from the very start”.
The MP, an anti-corruption activist previously part of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, said that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians would be affected by Putin’s proposal, initially favoured by Trump after Friday’s Alaska summit.
For the full story, click here:
Emmanuel Macron further said: “No country can accept the loss of territories unless it has security guarantees for its remaining territory.”
The French president added: “If we are weak today, we will pay a heavy price tomorrow … If Europe wants to be free and independent, we need to be feared and we need to be strong.”
Emmanuel Macron: Goal for tomorrow's talks is to 'present united front' between Ukraine and European allies
Ahead of Monday’s peace talks in the US, French president Emmanuel Macron said that in order to have a “lasting peace deal for Ukraine, Ukraine needs a strong army”.
He added that European allies want “Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be respected” and that “Ukraine must be represented in any talks on Ukraine’s future.”
Macron also said that “our goal for tomorrow’s talks is to present a united front between Ukraine and its European allies.”
He went on to warn that “if we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflict.”
EU council president: 'If no ceasefire is agreed, the EU and US must increase pressure on Russia'
European Union council president Antonio Costa added that he “welcomed the United States’ willingness to participate in providing security guarantees to Ukraine”.
Costa said: “Transatlantic unity is paramount at this moment to achieve a sustainable peace in Ukraine.”
He added: “As I underlined during today’s meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, if no ceasefire is agreed, the EU and the US must increase pressure on Russia.”
Following the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting among European countries ahead of Monday’s peace talks in Washington DC, European leaders are releasing statements regarding Ukraine.
An European Union Commission spokesperson said that the “videoconference of Ukraine’s allies focused on key matters such as the need to stop the killing in Ukraine, the commitment to maintain full pressure against Russia via sanctions.”
The spokesperson added that the “leaders involved in the video conference of Ukraine’s allies reaffirmed their unity in supporting Ukraine towards a just and lasting peace.”
Melania Trump urges Putin to 'restore the melodic laughter' of children
Donald Trump has published a letter Melania Trump addressed to Vladimir Putin during his visit to Alaska on Friday.
In the letter, the first lady urges the Russian president to “restore the melodic laughter” of children, saying:
“Dear President Putin,
Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger.
As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope. As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few.
Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all - so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded.
A simple yet profound concept, Mr. Putin, as I am sure you agree, is that each generation’s descendants begin their lives with a purity - an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology.
Yet in today’s world, some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter, untouched by the darkness around them — a silent defiance against the forces that can potentially claim their future. Mr. Putin, you can singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter.
In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself. Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today.
It is time.”
In response to whether the US accepted everything Vladimir Putin laid on the table during Friday’s Alaska summit, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday:
“The United States is not in a position to accept anything or reject anything, because ultimately, it’s up to the Ukrainians. They’re the ones that Russia has to make peace with… We have to make enough progress so that we can sit down President Zelensky and President Zelensky and President Putin in the same place, which is what President Zelensky has been asking for, and reach a final agreement that ends this war.
Now, there were some concepts and ideas discussed that we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive of in that meeting… We’re not going to negotiate this in the media. I understand that everybody wants to know what happened. But ultimately, there are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potentials for progress.”
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has said in a post on X that the Trump administration has swung from saying there would be severe consequences on Russia if it did not agree to a ceasefire to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, shutting down the option indefinitely in an interview with Meet the Press. Rubio said:
I don’t think new sanctions on Russia are going to force him to accept the ceasefire. They’re already under very severe sanctions …
The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to the table will be severely diminished. That moment may arrive.
But when it comes, what you’re basically signaling is ‘There is no opportunity for peace at this point. So just let’s put on more sanctions and allow more people to get bombed and more people to be killed’. And that’s what we’re trying to stop.
Pope Leo XIV has posted to X. History’s first American pope wrote 45 minutes ago:
Let us pray that efforts to bring wars to an end and to promote peace may bear fruit, and that in negotiations the common good of peoples may always be placed first.
The virtual meeting with Nato leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskyy started at about 14:30 BST. We will bring you the key lines from what is being discussed as soon as we have them.
It is being hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and includes leaders from Italy, the UK and Germany.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appear on a screen during the “coalition of the willing” video conference. Photograph: Philippe Magoni/AP
Russia agreed to concessions on five Ukrainian regions central to the war, Witkoff says
Steve Witkoff added that Russia had agreed to unspecified concessions on five Ukrainian regions central to the war, particularly the eastern Donetsk province.
“We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as gamechanging,” Witkoff said.
He told CNN:
The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions. There is an important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there. And that discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday.
As a reminder, Vladimir Putin has reportedly demanded Ukraine withdraw from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for ending the war and in exchange would freeze the frontline in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
US envoy says Putin agreed to security protections for Ukraine as part of Trump summit
Special US envoy Steve Witkoff has also been speaking to the media. He said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin agreed at the Alaska summit with Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling Nato’s collective defence mandate (article 5: an attack on one member is an attack on all) as part of an eventual deal to end the war.
Speaking with Jake Tapper, Witkoff told CNN’s State of the Union programme:
We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer article five like language to cover a security guarantee. So Putin has said that a red flag is Nato admission.
And so what we were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that, and could live with that, and everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with.
But assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer article five, like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato, we sort of were able to bypass that and get an agreement that the United States could offer article five protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.
US may not be able to create scenario to end war in Ukraine, secretary of state says
Meanwhile, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who joined Donald Trump at his summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, has been speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation programme.
He said the US will keep trying to create a scenario to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but admitted that might not be possible, stressing that life in the US won’t be fundamentally altered if peace in Ukraine is not achieved.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands … we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said.
“There are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potential for progress,” he said, adding that topics for discussion would include security guarantees for Ukraine.
Donald Trump promises 'big progress' on Russia
Donald Trump has just posted a very brief update on Truth Social. He wrote: “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED! President DJT.”
A few minutes before this post, the US president wrote:
If I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News, and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake and a very bad deal. That’s why they are the FAKE NEWS! Also, they should talk about the 6 WARS, etc., I JUST STOPPED!!! MAGA.
The final question comes from a Ukrainian journalist, who asks Zelenskyy what security guarantees he wants and if he is worried about a repeat of the chaotic scenes played out during his last visit to the White House in February.
Zelenskyy says that the financing of security guarantees can only be funded by Europe but there are other things Washington can help with, adding that he hopes the White House meeting tomorrow will be “very productive”.
