XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics.trump   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv   
   From: x@y.com   
      
   Trump's doing as he's told by Putin!   
      
      
      
   U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should make a   
   deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and   
   they’re not”, after a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have   
   demanded more Ukrainian land. After the two leaders met in Alaska on   
   Friday, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Putin had   
   offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv ceded all of Donetsk, the   
   industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets, a source familiar   
   with the matter said.   
      
   Zelensky rejected the demand, the source said. Russia already controls a   
   fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which   
   it first entered in 2014.   
      
   Trump also said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought   
   without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now   
   with U.S. support, have demanded.   
      
   Zelensky said he would meet Trump in Washington on Monday, while Kyiv’s   
   European allies welcomed Trump’s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and   
   tighten sanctions on Russia.   
      
   Analysis: Despite Trump’s impatience to broker a settlement in Russia-   
   Ukraine War, Putin presents some obstacles to peace   
      
   Trump’s meeting with Putin, the first U.S.-Russia summit since Moscow   
   launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lasted just   
   three hours.   
      
   “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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.   
      
   His various comments on the meeting mostly aligned with the public   
   positions of Moscow, which says it wants a full settlement - not a pause -   
   but that this will be complex because positions are “diametrically   
   opposed”.   
      
   Russia has been gradually advancing for months. The war - the deadliest in   
   Europe for 80 years - has killed or wounded well over a million people from   
   both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to   
   analysts. Before the summit, Trump had said he would not be happy unless a   
   ceasefire was agreed on.   
      
   Ukrainian women give birth in bomb shelters as country faces plummeting   
   population   
      
   But afterwards he said that, after Monday’s talks with Zelensky, “if all   
   works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin”. Those   
   talks will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in   
   February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Zelensky a brutal   
   public dressing-down. Putin signalled no movement in Russia’s long-held   
   demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv’s desired membership in the NATO   
   alliance.   
      
   He made no mention in public of meeting Zelensky, which the Ukrainian   
   leader said he was willing to do. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said a three-   
   way summit had not been discussed.   
      
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   In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and   
   Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and   
   had “largely agreed”.   
      
   “I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to   
   agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ’no’.”   
      
   Asked what he would advise Zelensky to do, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”   
      
   “Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.   
      
   Zelensky has consistently said he cannot concede territory without changes   
   to Ukraine’s constitution, and Kyiv sees Donetsk’s “fortress cities” such   
   as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk as a bulwark against Russian advances into even   
   more regions.   
      
   Zelensky has also insisted on security guarantees, to deter Russia from   
   invading again. He said he and Trump had discussed “positive signals” on   
   the U.S. taking part, and that Ukraine needed a lasting peace, not “just   
   another pause” between Russian invasions. Canadian Prime Minister Mark   
   Carney welcomed what he described as Trump’s openness to providing security   
   guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal. He said security guarantees were   
   “essential to any just and lasting peace.”   
      
   Putin, who has opposed involving foreign ground forces, said he agreed with   
   Trump that Ukraine’s security must be “ensured”. “I would like to hope that   
   the understanding we have reached will allow us to get closer to that goal   
   and open the way to peace in Ukraine,” Putin told a briefing on Friday with   
   Trump. For Putin, just sitting down with Trump represented a victory. He   
   had been ostracized by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just   
   a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from Trump.   
      
      
   Trump spoke to European leaders after returning to Washington. Several   
   stressed the need to keep pressure on Russia.   
      
   British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said an end to the war was closer than   
   ever, thanks to Trump, but added: “... until (Putin) stops his barbaric   
   assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even   
   more sanctions.” A statement from European leaders said, “Ukraine must have   
   ironclad security guarantees” and no limits should be placed on its armed   
   forces or right to seek NATO membership as Russia has sought.   
      
   Some European politicians and commentators were scathing about the summit.   
   “Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing,”   
   Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington, posted on X.   
      
   Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily   
   occurrence, while fighting raged on the front. Trump told Fox he would   
   postpone imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but he might   
   have to “think about it” in two or three weeks.   
      
   He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Putin: “We’ll speak to you   
   very soon and probably see you again very soon.”   
      
   “Next time in Moscow,” a smiling Putin responded in English.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)