KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday after Trump’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin ended without an agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump declared on his social media site that Friday’s meeting in Alaska “went very well.” After the summit and calls early Saturday with Zelenskyy and European leaders, he wrote: “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.”
Putin has previously said that Russia is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes Moscow’s interests into account.
Zelenskyy said he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump. He thanked Trump for an invitation to meet in person in Washington on Monday and said they would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
It will be Zelenskyy’s first visit to the U.S. since Trump berated him for being “disrespectful” during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting in February.
Trump confirmed the White House meeting and said that “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
Trump rolled out the red carpet on Friday for Putin, who was in the U.S. for the first time in a decade. But he gave little concrete detail afterward of what was discussed.
Trump had warned ahead of the summit of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war.
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Morton reported from London. Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
