Donald Trump will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Monday, the Ukrainian leader says. The pair had a “long, meaningful” chat after Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska last night, at which the US rolled out the red carpet for Russia’s leader. Follow live below.
Saturday 16 August 2025 11:19, UK
Vladimir Putin was the clear winner from the Alaska summit, according to international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.
He says the Russian president has finally had a day out “the international doghouse he’s been in for years now” and been given the chance to “strut and posture” on the world stage.
Even more importantly, Waghorn says, he hasn’t been forced into a ceasefire agreement and severe sanctions that could’ve crippled the Russian economy have receded for the time being.
You can hear Waghorn explore the big Russian win below, as well as the reasons why Trump has come out the obvious loser.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has just released a statement regarding Trump and Putin’s summit.
“President Trump’s efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” he started, adding: “His leadership in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended.”
He said the next step must be further talks involving Zelenskyy, as the “path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without him”.
He said Europe and the US’s security guarantees to Ukraine would be crucial in “deterring Putin” moving forward, and that the countries would “keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions” until he “stops his barbaric assault”.
By Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor, in Kyiv
Donald Trump appears to have shifted significantly towards the Russian position on the best way to end the war in Ukraine, following talks with Vladimir Putin.
Posting on Truth Social [see our 9:58 post] the US president said: “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.”
That would appear to be an about turn.
On the way to Alaska, Trump had said he would not be happy if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire there. He seems to have abandoned that position.
Russia insists a full agreement must be reached before a ceasefire. That allows Moscow to continue fighting this war it believes it is winning. Trump appears to have swallowed that line.
That will be disappointing to Ukrainians. A few weeks ago, the US president had seemed on the brink of imposing far more severe sanctions if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire.
In an interview with Fox News he said it is up to president Zelenskyy now to “make a deal”. That is seen here as tantamount to accepting surrender.
If Trump is now hewing further and further towards siding with Russia in this conflict, can Ukraine’s European allies take the US’s place or will Putin eventually prevail?
European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer have released a joint statement after evaluating Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin last night.
The leaders said they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace”.
They said the next step must be further talks between Trump and Putin which included Ukrainian president Zelenskyy.
They said they were “ready to work” with Trump and Zelenskyy to make the trilateral meeting happen.
The statement added that Ukraine must have “ironclad security guarantees” to defend itself and that “no limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces”.
Moving away from reaction to Trump and Putin’s meeting for a moment now, as Russia’s Defence Ministry has said its forces have taken control of two Ukrainian villages.
It says one is Kolodyazi village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and the other is Vorone village in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.
Ukrainian officials, who earlier said Russia had launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile at Ukrainian territory overnight, have not commented on Russia’s latest claims.
Hand pats, manspreading and tell-tale signs of discontent – there was plenty on display in the body language of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to show who had the upper hand in their Ukraine negotiations, an expert has told Sky News.
All eyes were on the two world leaders as they met on the red carpet at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska, and again as they emerged a few hours later from their much-anticipated summit.
While at first it was all “genuine smiles”, when the leaders emerged from their private meeting, the lack of a deal was written all over Trump’s face, according to body language expert and psychologist Dr Peter Collett.
Even in their very first handshake, there was plenty to be analysed in terms of body language, Dr Collett says.
Read more here…
European leaders are set to release a joint statement after evaluating Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin last night.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said the meeting this morning saw the leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, listen to the opinions of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He did not say when the statement would be made public.
The others involved in the call included France’s president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
Donald Trump has just posted on Truth Social after what he called a “great and very successful day in Alaska”.
He said the meeting with Vladimir Putin “went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European leaders”.
He continued: “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 also confirmed Zelenskyy would meet him at the Oval Office on Monday afternoon.
“If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin,” he added, before concluding: “Potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
We’ve just been hearing from General Sir Richard Shirreff, former deputy supreme allied commander of NATO, who was left unimpressed by the outcomes of the Trump-Putin summit.
He says the US would have been “entirely within their rights” to arrest Vladimir Putin when he landed in Alaska, “put him in an orange jumpsuit and send him off to The Hague in manacles”.
Instead, he says the Americans rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader despite Putin doing “nothing in any way shape or form” to end the war in Ukraine.
He says the “only way” that Ukraine will get any guarantee to stop Russia achieving its intent of continuing the war is receiving NATO membership.
“Is Putin going to accept that? No. No way. Not a chance. The only way Putin is going to accept that is if he’s forced to accept it,” he says.
“That means that Russia’s got to get a bloody nose and it’s got to be defeated. That is about a million miles away at the moment. So I see no prospect of this thing coming to an end.”
What happens next?
“Well, the war will go on,” Sir Richard adds.
“Ukrainian cities will continue to get drone and missile attacks and Ukrainian civilians will continue to be killed.
“Meanwhile, the diplomatic dance will continue. Until Trump recognises that the only way to stop this war is to force Russia to accept what the West and what Ukraine wants, then nothing will change.”
Donald Trump’s highly anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin is behind us, with no ceasefire agreement made.
The US president is now back in Washington and Putin has returned to Russia.
There are still question marks over what comes next, but thanks to statements from Zelenskyy, the White House and the Kremlin, we have an idea of what will – and won’t be – happening in the coming days…
Zelenskyy to visit Trump
The Ukrainian president says he will be meeting Trump in Washington on Monday, after he spoke to the US leader in a lengthy phone call earlier.
No plans for a three-way summit
We know Trump has proposed a summit between himself, Putin and Zelenskyy, but the Kremlin says it was not discussed at the meeting in Alaska.
No date on fresh Trump-Putin talks
Trump said the meeting last night was “very productive” and Putin said he hoped an agreement between the pair would “pave the path towards peace in Ukraine”.
Putin also ended the pair’s statements to the media after the talks by saying “next time, Moscow” – and Trump didn’t rule out visiting the Russian leader there.
But Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said he didn’t know when the US and Russian presidents would meet again, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
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