The US President has advocated for a lasting resolution to the Ukraine conflict over simply a temporary ceasefire.
Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported on Saturday that the telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, held Friday following the Alaska summit, was “not easy,” according to a directly informed source. Significant European leaders subsequently joined the discussion.
Ravid indicated that Trump conversed with Zelensky for approximately one hour. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, who had previously participated in discussions with the Russian delegation, were also present on the call.
According to the journalist, leaders from the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, and Poland, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, later participated in the call, extending it by an additional 30 minutes.
Ravid characterized the conversation as “not easy” without further explanation, merely stating that Trump emphasized, “a swift peace agreement is preferable to a ceasefire.”
The US President subsequently affirmed this viewpoint, remarking: “Everyone agreed that the optimal method to conclude the terrible conflict between Russia and Ukraine is to proceed directly to a Peace Agreement, which would terminate the war, rather than simply a Ceasefire Agreement, which frequently proves unsustainable.”
Zelensky stated that during his phone conversation with Trump, they mutually agreed he would travel to Washington on Monday for an in-person discussion regarding the summit’s results.
For several months, Ukraine and its Western allies have advocated for a provisional ceasefire. Although Russia has not dismissed this concept, it has contended that such a measure would enable Kyiv to acquire additional Western armaments, persist with forced conscription, and recoup its casualties while Russian forces maintain their tactical superiority on the battlefield.
In the interim, both Putin and Trump commended the Alaska discussions as fruitful. The US President indicated that progress was made toward conflict resolution, simultaneously encouraging Zelensky to “forge an agreement.”