Trump drags Zelensky to explosive White House showdown as deal with Putin for 'land swap' leaves Europe reeling - US president warns Ukraine: 'Russia is big, you're not'

Trump drags Zelensky to White House showdown as 'disturbing' details of Putin peace deal leak

By NATASHA ANDERSON, SENIOR US NEWS REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 13:15 BST, 16 August 2025 | UPDATED: 16:03 BST, 16 August 2025

Donald Trump has summoned Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House following his secretive meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

The president announced in the early hours of Saturday that the high-stakes summit with the Russian despot had been a success - despite no ceasefire. Trump and Putin's discussions centered on land swaps, a proposal that left European security experts reeling as they branded it 'deeply disturbing' and a 'clear win' for Russia.

Instead of ceasefire, Trump said that Putin and Zelensky will move directly to a lasting peace deal and that Ukraine's president will meet him at the White House on Monday.

The president said Ukraine should make a deal to end the war because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not.'

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: '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.

'President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.'

Details of the shadowy meeting in far-flung Alaska began to leak this morning.

Among the reported discussions, Putin has demanded Ukraine withdraw from the eastern Donetsk region. In exchange, he is willing to halt further expansion into Ukraine.

Trump also reportedly proposed an agreement that would see Ukraine offered Nato-like security guarantees similar to those laid out to member states under Article 5.

'As one of the security guarantees for Ukraine, the American side proposed a non-NATO Article 5 type guarantee, supposedly agreed with Putin,' one diplomatic insider said of the proposed agreement.

Another source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the NATO-like guarantees had been discussed.

But that source added: 'No-one knows how this could work and why Putin would agree to it if he is categorically against NATO and obviously against really effective guarantees of Ukraine's sovereignty.'

Putin made clear that he will not bend on his core demands to 'resolve the root causes' of the conflict - which would force Ukraine to cede territory and Nato to abandon its expansion in eastern Europe.

But the Russian president has claimed he is willing to compromise on other issues, including territories outside the fiercely-contested Donetsk region.

Russian forces control around 70 percent of Donetsk but its western cities are still held by Kyiv.

Sources close to Zelensky say that he would not be willing to cede Donetsk to the Russians.

Details of the alleged proposal emerged Saturday after Trump hailed his meeting with Putin as 'great and very successful'.

He is urging Ukraine to agree a deal to end the war because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not', and hinted that land swap deals and security guarantees were among the negotiations discussed.

'I think those are points that we negotiated, and those are points that we largely have agreed on,' Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity in a post-summit interview.

'I think we're pretty close to a deal,' he said, adding: 'Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say no.'

But Trump's comments have left Europeans reeling, with some political analysts branding the proposal as 'deeply disturbing' and a 'clear 1-0 for Putin'.

Trump tweet: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/08/16/12/101280097-15006163-image-a-1_1755344832405.jpg

'Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing. As feared: no ceasefire, no peace,' Wolfgang Ischinger, an ex-German 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.'

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said: 'Now Trump seems to be shifting most of the responsibility to Kyiv and Europe, but reserving some role for himself.'

She said, however, that Putin had apparently not succeeded as far as he had hoped in getting Trump to publicly side with him and put pressure on Kyiv.

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.'

After Trump returned to Washington, the White House said he spoke to NATO leaders following the lengthy conversation with Zelensky.

Espen Barth Eide, foreign minister of NATO member Norway, told reporters in Oslo: 'We must continue to put pressure on Russia, and even increase it.'

Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said the summit had not yielded significant progress toward ending the war but 'confirmed that Putin is not seeking peace, but rather an opportunity to weaken Western unity and spread his propaganda.'

Trump met 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,' Trump touted early Saturday morning in a post on his Truth social platform.

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.

Trump said he would hold talks at the White House with Zelensky on Monday, adding: 'If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people's lives will be saved.'

Zelensky said after a lengthy conversation with Trump following the Alaska summit that Ukraine was ready for constructive cooperation, and he supported the idea of a trilateral meeting.

'Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,' Zelensky wrote on social media.

But Putin made no mention of meeting Zelensky when speaking to reporters earlier. Russian state news agency TASS quoted Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov as saying the possibility of a three-way summit including Zelensky had not been discussed.

Trump revealed during his interview with Hannity that the peace agreement with Putin could involve land swaps - something Zelensky has openly opposed.

When asked by Hannity what he would advise Zelensky, Trump said: 'Gotta make a deal.'

'Look, Russia is a very big power, and they're not. They're great soldiers,' he added.

Zelensky has repeatedly underlined the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any deal, to deter Russia from launching a new invasion at some point in the future.

'We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine's security,' he said after his call with Trump.

Before the summit, Trump had set the goal of agreeing on a ceasefire in the war and said he would not be happy without it.

Putin signaled no movement in Russia's long-held positions on the war, but said he agreed with Trump that Ukraine's security must be 'ensured'.

'We are ready to work on this. 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,' Putin said at a brief media appearance after the summit where neither leader took questions.

He added: '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 Putin, the very fact of sitting down face-to-face with the US president represented a diplomatic victory.

The Kremlin leader had been ostracized by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had been facing a threat of new sanctions from Trump.

Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence in the three-and-a-half-year war.

Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine's territory, Ukraine's Air Force said on Saturday. It said its air defense units destroyed 61 of them.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said 139 clashes had taken place on the front line over the past day. Russia said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Trump told Fox that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50 percent tariff on US imports that includes a 25 percent penalty for the imports from Russia.

'Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now,' Trump said of Chinese tariffs. 'I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now.'

Trump ended his remarks on Friday by telling 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 Putin responded in English. Trump said he might 'get a little heat on that one' but that he could 'possibly see it happening.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5763041&forum_id=2...id#49189885)