‘Up to Zelenskyy now’: Trump on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire after meet with Putin in Alaska

“Now, it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,” Trump told Fox News after direct talks with Russian President Putin. “And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit. But it’s up to President Zelenskyy…And if they’d like, I’ll be at that next meeting,” Trump added.

However, Trump said the direct talks with Putin in Alaska did not yield an agreement to pause the war in Ukraine, though the US president claimed “great progress” was made during the talks with the Russian delegation which lasted for nearly three hours.

💬 President #Putin: Russia is interested in putting an end to the Ukrainian crisis. We hope that the understandings reached with @POTUS will open the way to peace in Ukraine.

❗️ We expect that neither Kiev nor Europe will obstruct the peace progress. pic.twitter.com/C4BaKWY5Lk

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) August 16, 2025

“I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on,” the US president said at the joint press conference on Friday in Alaska.

Putin, who was speaking through an interpreter during the presser, said that both the leaders had hammered out an “understanding” and that he expects Ukraine and its European allies to accept the results of the US-Russia negotiation constructively and not try to “disrupt the emerging progress”.

Putin said that he agreed with the US president that Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed but added that the “root cause” of the problem must be resolved in order to seek a peaceful conflict to the matter.

Ahead of the Putin-Trump meeting, Zelenskyy accused Russia of continuing to attack Kyiv even ahead of the summit but claimed that its attempt to “show strength” with new assault in the eastern part had faltered. “On the day of the negotiations, they also kill people. And that says a lot. The war continues. It continues precisely because there is no order, nor any indication that Moscow is preparing to end this war,” Zelenskyy said, Reuters reported.