Zelensky says Russian ceasefire refusal complicates peace efforts

London: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia’s rejection of a ceasefire will complicate efforts to end the war, in a sign of tense negotiations ahead over US President Donald Trump’s new push for a long-term peace deal instead.

Zelensky held out for a ceasefire as the best way to negotiate terms with Moscow after Trump shifted his approach over the weekend, heightening their fundamental differences as the Ukrainian leader flies to the US for a meeting in the White House on Monday.

Trump previously named a ceasefire as a key goal for his summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday (US time), but later declared the best way to end the war was to go directly to a peace deal – an argument closer to Moscow’s position.

Zelensky has rejected giving up large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine despite Trump’s talk of “land-swapping” in a final deal.

Trump and his top officials berated the Ukrainian leader in February at a meeting in the Oval Office that highlighted White House frustrations with him for holding out against Putin’s proposals to end the war.

While Zelensky said on Sunday (AEST) that he was grateful for Trump’s invitation to the talks on Monday, he warned that “peaceful coexistence” with Russia was difficult if it did not agree to end its missile strikes.

“We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation,” he said.

“Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”

European leaders sought to stay positive about the talks, praising what they called progress in Alaska, but issued a joint warning that Putin could not be trusted to keep the peace because he had triggered decades of conflict with Russia’s neighbours.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will jointly chair an online meeting of national leaders on Sunday afternoon, London time, to pledge peace-keeping support for Ukraine and call for lasting security guarantees against further Russian aggression.

While Starmer and Macron said the US would back these security guarantees, there is no detail from Trump on whether the US would use military force to support a peace agreement.

Late on Sunday, a number of European leaders confirmed they would attend the Washington meeting with Zelensky.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Finnish President Alexander Stubb all announced they would be at the discussions with Trump.

Zelensky spoke with Trump for 90 minutes after the Alaska summit to discuss Russian demands and prepare for new talks, and he then issued a list of principles for negotiation.

“Killings must stop as soon as possible, the fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky, as well as against our port infrastructure,” he said on social media.

“All Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians must be released, and the children abducted by Russia must be returned.”

“Thousands of our people remain in captivity – they all must be brought home. Pressure on Russia must be maintained while the aggression and occupation continue.”

In a new development that he did not signal in Alaska, Trump spoke to Zelensky about a three-way meeting between the United States, Russia and Ukraine. However, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said there had been no discussion of a three-way summit during the Alaska meeting, according to Russian state media.

In a related move, Trump’s wife, Melania, wrote a letter to Putin about the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia. White House officials told Reuters of the letter but did not reveal the contents; it was handed to the Russian leader in Anchorage, although the US first lady was not at the summit.

No ceasefire

Trump hailed the meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, as a “great and successful day” and sought to play down concerns that he did not emerge with a ceasefire agreement.

“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,” he said on social media.

His statement on Truth Social, issued on Saturday afternoon AEST, set off an urgent series of talks among European leaders in the hope they could prevent Trump from siding with Putin on some of Russia’s key demands.

Putin has ruled out a ceasefire until a comprehensive deal is reached and told Trump that Ukraine should fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Reuters reported on Sunday, AEST. This would also see Russia retain the land it currently occupies in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Zelensky has rejected these options in the past. The Reuters report said Putin would be prepared to return small areas of Ukrainian land in the northern Sumy and north-eastern Kharkiv regions.

After the summit, Trump signalled that Ukraine should accept some of the Russian demands to end the war, saying that his advice to Zelensky was that he has “gotta make a deal” with Putin.

“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity.

A crucial concern in Europe is that the US is not applying sufficient pressure on Putin – for instance, through economic sanctions – while the Russian leader benefits from generous treatment and talks with the American president.

Without a ceasefire, Putin would seek to apply pressure on Ukraine to sign a long-term peace deal while he continued the Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Describing sanctions as “an effective tool”, Zelensky said security must be “guaranteed reliably and in the long term, with the involvement of both Europe and the US”.

European leaders have also stepped up calls for security guarantees, a problematic issue given arguments about whether countries would police a ceasefire by putting “boots on the ground” in Ukraine.

“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said a statement issued on Saturday, AEST, by the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Finland, as well as the European Union.

“No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its co-operation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to [the] EU and NATO.”

Those principles appear certain to be dismissed by Russia, given that Putin strongly opposes any enlargement of NATO near Russian borders.

The European leaders have previously said a “Coalition of the Willing” is ready to play an active role; however, they have yet to set out exactly how that would help maintain a ceasefire or long-term peace deal, although the UK has said it would send peacekeeping troops.

Starmer, who convened a meeting of the coalition last Wednesday, emphasised the stated willingness of the US to provide “robust security guarantees” alongside European nations.

“This is important progress and will be crucial in deterring Putin from coming back for more,” he said. “In the meantime, until he stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”

“Our unwavering support for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes.”

‘Putin won time’

Meanwhile, Ukrainian politicians mocked Trump for treating Putin with high honour in Alaska when the Russian leader is considered a war criminal by 120 countries.

“When you repeatedly warn dictators of sanctions but never follow through, they just end up finding it amusing,” wrote Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and leader of the Golos political party, on social media.

“Putin won time, President Trump got to shake [a] dictator’s hand, Ukraine got nothing.”

Anger focused on the images of American soldiers kneeling at the Russian leader’s aircraft to roll out a red carpet for his meeting with Trump.

“This image of American soldiers kneeling in front of a Russian plane to lay a red carpet for a war criminal should shake Europe awake,” wrote Olena Tregub, the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption group linked to Transparency International.

Russia resumed its barrage of Ukraine on Saturday, launching 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

Frontline territories in the Sumy, Donetsk, Chernihiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions had been targeted in the overnight strikes, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app. It said its air defence units had destroyed 61 of the drones.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily morning report that 139 clashes had also taken place on the front line over the previous day.

Russia said it had also come under attack, with its defence ministry saying it had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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