Donald Trump has said ‘we’re getting close to a deal on Ukraine’ and he will meet Vladimir Putin ‘very shortly’ – as more details begin to emerge over a potential summit at the end of next week. Follow the latest.
Saturday 9 August 2025 02:06, UK
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Here’s a round-up of the main developments today, as we pause our rolling updates on the war in Ukraine for now.
Donald Trump has said “we have a shot” at bringing the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end.
The US president was asked if he felt like an evnet similar to the peace deal signing between Armenia and Azerbaijan could take place between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it,” he replied.
Donald Trump has claimed winning the Nobel Peace Prize is not the reason he is trying to bring about an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking in the White House alongside the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier, the US presient said it would be an honour to win the award but insisted he was “not politicking for it”.
“But I would never volunteer. I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it because of, I really, number one, I want to save lives,” Trump said, going on to say that was the reason he’s “involved so much with Ukraine and Russia.”
Trump has been talking a lot during his second term about how many conflicts he has helped to end and how he wants to be known as a peacemaker, as well as how much he thinks he should be awarded a prize.
Vladimir Putin will meet Donald Trump in Alaska next week, according to the US president, despite the Russian leader facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
The court wants the Russian president on a warrant issued in March 2023 for alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine during the war.
The court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, relies on other countries to arrest its suspects.
But neither Russia nor America are members of the court, which was set up in 2002 with the intention of holding leaders and senior officials responsible for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
Trump’s administration has targeted the court before, putting sanctions on its chief prosecutor Karim Khan after the US president signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.
He has accused it of “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the US and Israel.
Russia also rejects the court’s authority and has issued a warrant for Khan and the ICC judge who signed Putin’s warrant.
Putin has travelled overseas several times since the warrant was issued, visiting ICC member state Mongolia, as well as China and North Korea, which are not members of the court.
Donald Trump has said he will meet Vladimir Putin in the US state of Alaska next Friday.
“Further details to follow,” the US president said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Earlier, Trump said he would meet “very shortly” with his Russian counterpart to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
He added: “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise I’d do it much quicker. He would, too. He’d like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it.”
It would be the first meeting between US and Russia since 2021, when former president Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva.
As talks about talks continue to dominate the headlines, the war in Ukraine is very much still being fought.
Here are the latest images from the frontline showing Ukrainian troops firing artillery towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia.
Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “going to have to get ready to sign something” as rhetoric around ending the war ramps up.
The US president said tonight that he will meet with Vladimir Putin “very shortly” and has suggested that “swapping of territories” could be part of a peace deal to end the war.
As we’ve mentioned, Russia currently holds around 20% of Ukraine, including the four regions Moscow illegally annexed following the start of the war in 2022 – Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
Will Zelenskyy cede territory to Russia?
Speaking to Sky News’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay last November, Zelenskyy suggested for the first time that a ceasefire deal could include Russian control of Ukrainian territory.
He conceded the land might be lost for now – with future plans to bring it back under Ukrainian control “in a diplomatic way” once the fighting was over.
Zelenskyy said NATO membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of the country in order to end the “hot phase of the war”, as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
Watch Ramsay’s interview with Zelenskyy from November 2024 here:
Donald Trump says the “swapping of territories” will be involved in a deal to create peace in Ukraine, but how much land is currently held by either side?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this year that Russia now controls around 20% of Ukraine, the vast majority of which is in the southeast of the country.
By contrast, Kyiv’s forces aren’t currently in possession of any Russian territory.
Ukrainian troops did previously hold land in Russia’s Kursk region following an incursion into the region last year, but Moscow has since said their presence has been removed.
No other Ukrainian incursions into Russian territory have been reported since.
Donald Trump has taken a huge leap forward in bringing Russia’s war with Ukraine to an end, our US correspondent David Blevins says.
The US president said throughout his election campaign that he would end the war within 24 hours.
Now, some 200 days into his presidency, Blevins says it sounds like “we’re not a step closer, but a leap closer to bringing this war to an end”.
Trump has said he will meet “very shortly” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It sounds like it could be as early as next week, and I think we could have a location before the end of the day.”
Things are definitely moving fast, Blevins added.
“In terms of what the shape of any potential deal might be, he is beginning to talk about territory,” he said.
Russia has already sent its demands to the White House in terms of what it wants in return for agreeing a ceasefire, “but we also know that President Zelenskyy has consistently refused to concede any territory that has been annexed by Russia in the course of the war,” Blevins adds.
“So I think it sounds that like they’re already talking about a potential deal, but we’re still some distance off that.”
Donald Trump says there will be “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both sides” involved in a peace deal for Ukraine.
Speaking at the White House, he said: “You’re looking at a territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years. A lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died.
“So we’re looking at that, but we’re actually looking to get some back, and some swapping.
“It’s complicated, actually. Nothing is easy. It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back.
“We’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “going to have to get ready to sign something”.
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