August 16, 2025: Trump shifts focus to Ukraine peace deal instead of ceasefire after Putin meeting

Our live coverage of the diplomatic efforts surrounding the war in Ukraine has moved here.

The chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the US’ First Lady Melania Trump for calling on Russia’s President to save deported Ukrainian children.

“The return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia should be a key condition for any peace agreement,” Andriy Yermak wrote in a post on social media Saturday.

Yermak said he was “grateful” to Melania Trump for her letter to Russian President Vladmir Putin, in which she called on the leader to “singlehandedly restore” children’s “melodic laughter.”

More than 35,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted during the war and taken to over 100 locations in Russia and Russian-occupied territory, according to the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, an effort led by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

A quick peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be “worth more than a ceasefire,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on Saturday.

Merz said that after US President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin should be held “as soon as possible” to reach a peace agreement.

“If that works out, it’s worth more than a ceasefire that could possibly last for weeks without further progress in political and diplomatic efforts,” Merz said.

Merz said that it was “good news” that there were no territorial negotiations between Putin and Trump without Ukraine and the rest of Europe.

Europe will play a role in Trump’s talks with Zelensky on Monday, he said. A White House official told CNN that multiple European leaders have been invited to the talks.

However, “for the time being” Trump will still play the decisive role in the conflict, Merz said.

The German leader also said that he is pleased that the US is ready to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine.

“Now there are security guarantees on the table,” he said, “And the good news is that America is prepared to participate in such security guarantees and is not leaving it to the Europeans alone.”

Multiple European leaders have been invited to President Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Monday, a White House official told CNN.

It’s unclear which leaders will ultimately attend. CNN previously reported that European officials expect at least one other leader from Europe to join the talks Monday.

US first lady Melania Trump penned a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was hand-delivered by President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, calling on him to protect children and “nurture the next generation’s hope” as his war on Ukraine continues.

Melania Trump said Putin “can singlehandedly restore” children’s “melodic laughter,” adding that “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.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If you’re just joining our coverage, here are some of the key developments from the past few hours:

• Three-way meeting: US President Donald Trump wants to arrange a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts by next Friday — assuming his Monday meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky goes well, Trump told European leaders today.

• More on Zelensky’s trip: We’ve learned that US Vice President JD Vance and at least one European leader are expected to join the White House sit-down between Zelensky and Trump.

• Putin’s demands: Russian President Vladimir Putin spelled out his demands for “land swaps” with Ukraine during talks with Trump on Friday, including his insistence Ukraine gives up its eastern Donbas region, according to European officials. Putin said in exchange, he would be willing to freeze the current front lines in the rest of Ukraine and agree not to attack Ukraine or other European nations again, Trump told European leaders.

• Security guarantee may complicate negotiations: Officials say securing European and US security guarantees for Ukraine will be a difficult task, even in the event of a negotiated peace deal and ceasefire. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Adm. James Stavridis told CNN that while land can be more easily negotiated, Putin may view NATO-esque protections as more of an existential threat.

CNN’s Tori B. Powell, Dalia Abdelwahab, Billy Stockwell, Kevin Liptak, Daria Tarasova-Markina in Kyiv and Lauren Kent contributed reporting.

If Russia is unwilling to agree to stop attacking Ukraine even temporarily, it may take “a lot of effort” for Moscow to be willing to exist peacefully alongside its neighbor, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post Saturday.

“We see that Russia is rejecting numerous demands for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killings. This complicates the situation,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky said talks with allies will continue throughout the weekend and that he is preparing for his meeting Monday with US President Donald Trump. Zelensky thanked the White House for the invitation.

The “Coalition of the Willing” — Ukraine’s main European allies — will meet on Sunday.

Visitors stand next to a makeshift memorial paying tribute to Ukrainian and foreign fighters in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 23.

President Donald Trump’s shift in focus to a final peace deal in Ukraine rather than first securing a ceasefire “will take time” — and more will die in the process, former US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said.

Taylor said negotiators will need to hash out complicated issues in a final deal, including reconstruction, compensation and the establishment of new boundaries.

The former ambassador said he hopes Trump is having these types of conversations, but added that he does not “have much hope” for Ukraine and Russia to remediate issues “because the sides are too far apart.”

A long-term agreement, he said, “will be very difficult. Why? Because the Russians don’t want there to be a sovereign Ukraine and Ukraine wants to be a sovereign nation. There’s no overlap in that.”

US President Donald Trump told European leaders he wants to arrange a trilateral summit among himself, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin by next Friday, and that he would get to work arranging the meeting if Monday’s Oval Office talks with Zelensky go well.

European officials expect at least one other leader from Europe will join those talks on Monday, but it wasn’t yet clear who.

US Vice President JD Vance speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 28.

US Vice President JD Vance will attend Monday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, a source familiar with the plans told CNN.

The last time Zelensky was in the Oval Office in February, Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of a lack of gratitude, asking him, “Have you said thank you once?”

However, in May, Vance met Zelensky with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Italy. While reporters weren’t invited to the meeting, afterward, Vance posted a photo of him and Zelensky smiling.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that US President Donald Trump is “creating the opportunity to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

“Robust and credible security guarantees are essential to any just and lasting peace,” Carney said in a statement. “I welcome the openness of the United States to providing security guarantees as part of Coalition of the Willing’s efforts.”

During a call with European leaders after yesterday’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump highlighted an Italian idea for a NATO-style security guarantee for Ukraine as part of a peace deal, according to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Reuters reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spelled out his demands for “land swaps” with Ukraine during his nearly three-hour summit with US President Donald Trump yesterday, including his insistence Ukraine gives up the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, according to European officials familiar with Trump’s accounting of the meeting to his counterparts afterward.

Putin said in exchange, he would be willing to freeze the current front lines in the rest of Ukraine — in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and agree to a promise not to attack Ukraine or other European nations again.

But he didn’t back away from a demand to eliminate what Russia calls the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine — code for reducing the size of Kyiv’s military, abandoning its aspirations to join NATO and becoming a neutral state.

The details of Putin’s conditions emerged when Trump briefed European leaders on the talks as he was arriving back in Washington early this morning. Trump said he believed a deal could be reached quickly if Putin’s conditions were met, and that he would discuss the matter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday, the officials said.

European leaders also said Trump voiced openness to providing US security guarantees for Ukraine once the war ends, though the specifics of what he’s willing to provide remained unclear.

Taken together, Trump’s recounting of the meeting provided little optimism among European officials, though leaders’ public responses to the summit were calibrated to avoid contradicting Trump.

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment about the details of Trump’s summit with Putin, and Trump said in an interview that he preferred to keep the specifics of the meeting private.

Let’s take a look ahead to next week, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.

CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh breaks down some of the key issues the two leaders may discuss:

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Analysis: What to expect from Zelensky-Trump meeting

01:46 • Source: CNN

Analysis: What to expect from Zelensky-Trump meeting

01:46

Firefighters put out the fire after a Russian missile hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 17.

There is currently “no motivation” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine now that his US counterpart Donald Trump has said he will hold off on imposing secondary sanctions on those who buy Russian oil, a prominent critic of the Russian leader told CNN.

The United States and the European Union “have the power to make life really uncomfortable for Vladimir Putin” to get him to end the war, Bill Browder, a former top investor in Russia, told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield.

“We can make it uncomfortable for him militarily by providing more military aid to Ukraine,” he suggested. “Or we can make life very uncomfortable for him economically” by imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil or confiscating frozen assets, Browder added.

The Russian leader’s meeting with Trump was a “huge victory for Putin,” Browder said.

“He’s got exactly what he wants. He can carry on with his war, and there are to be no devastating sanctions, which means that there is no incentive for him to come to any kind of reasonable solution on this war,” he said.

Russian state TV gave largely positive coverage of the summit between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska, celebrating the handshake between the two leaders and Putin’s ride in the US presidential limousine.

Kremlin officials have said the meeting is proof that Moscow is not as isolated on the world stage as Western leaders have argued.

Watch this report from CNN’s Fred Pleitgen below:

Just hours after getting back to the White House after his high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, US President Donald Trump arrived at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, this morning at 11:52 a.m. ET.

Oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk, Russia, on July 14.

US President Donald Trump remains “bafflingly unwilling” to apply maximum economic pressure on Russia, despite such measures being his best bet to exert influence over the Kremlin, a finance and security expert said Saturday.

Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, said the “economic dimension” of yesterday’s Trump-Putin summit is “probably where Trump had the most to offer.”

Ahead of the meeting, Trump deployed a range of contradictory economic signals, Keatinge said, mixing “carrots” like investment deals and sanctions relief with “sticks,” such as heavier sanctions and more tariffs on Russia’s oil trading partners.

Despite these efforts, the status quo remains, with post-summit remarks offering no insight into whether Trump threatened further economic pressure during the Alaska meeting, Keatinge said in a statement.

“All eyes will now turn back to the impending imposition of 25% tariffs on India for its purchase of Russian oil,” he said of the additional tariffs that Trump announced earlier this month as punishment for India’s importing of Russian oil and gas.

The leaders of the Nordic-Baltic Eight issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for Ukraine, saying that “no decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine, and no decisions on Europe without Europe” should be made.

“To achieve a just and lasting peace the next step must be together with Ukraine. Only Ukraine can make decisions concerning its future,” the statement said.

The eight countries include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.

The statement welcomed news of President Donald Trump’s discussions with European officials for Ukrainian security guarantees, saying that “no limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries” and that “Russia has no veto over Ukraine’s pathway to the EU and NATO.”

The leaders pledged to continue arming Ukraine and enhancing Europe’s defenses, while warning they will keep strengthening sanctions and economic measures “as long as Russia continues its killing.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska was “timely and very useful,” marking his first comments since appearing alongside Trump after Friday’s summit.

The Russian leader — noting that direct negotiations of this kind had not happened at this level “for a long time” — said Russia respected the position of the Trump administration with regard to the war in Ukraine.

“The conversation was very frank and substantive, and in my view, it brings us closer to the necessary decisions,” he added.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump shake hands after arriving at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.

US President Donald Trump attempted to express friendly dominance with most of his body language seen yesterday at his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to behavioral analyst and body-language expert Chris Ulrich.

He told CNN’s Michael Smerconish this morning that the initial handshake moment between the two leaders was “a moment of opportunity for them to connect.”

After Trump and Putin shook hands for about 10 seconds, they could be seen walking down the tarmac. By Trump walking down the middle, Ulrich says he was “showing he’s in control, he’s in command.”

“There’s Trump in the middle kind of holding court. He’s talking to the president. He’s talking to the adviser and him being in the middle. It’s cordial. It’s kind. They’re open. They’re not in each other’s faces,” Ulrich said.

Then, after the two had their closed-door discussion, Trump and Putin held a news briefing where they did not take questions.

Standing behind the podium, Ulrich said their body language looked “very cordial.”

“It’s a calm moment between the two. It’s a much different energy in the room,” he said.

See the moment the two leaders met below: