Search for Peace in Ukraine Gets Pace

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump giving statements after their Alaska Summit on 15 August, 2025

Search for Peace in Ukraine Gets Pace

Deepak Razdan

Sunday, 17 August, 2025

The first shots for a peace agreement in Ukraine have been fired. This was clear from the Alaska Summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on 15th August.

So far, President Putin had appeared to be an unreal person determined to destabilize Europe after destroying Ukraine. The Coalition of the Willing was working hard to put together a European Army to counter Russia.

NATO was putting pressure on its European members to raise their defence budgets to five per cent of the GDP, 3.5 per cent on core defence expenditure, and told them not to depend on the US wholly for protection against Russia.

The Alaska Summit changed the atmosphere. It showed President Putin was open to talks. The two sides could meet and the world could know why the Ukraine war had continued for more than three years.

The meeting in the US territory was certainly the result of sustained efforts by President Trump to secure an end of the bloody war. It’s not just import tariffs that he was worried about, he had proved.

Thousands were getting killed in the Ukraine battlefields every week, and he wanted a halt to all this, and was ready to facilitate talks.

At least now a third party has some clue how Russia could agree for a ceasefire or peace settlement. President Trump had a few hours meeting with the Russian President to understand this.

President Putin wanted the next Summit to be in Moscow and President Trump appeared to agree to this. “Next time in Moscow,” Mr Putin made a rare aside in English at a media interaction, where he and Mr Trump made statements on the talks.

A trilateral meeting among Mr Trump, Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy can also follow, the US President has indicated. There can be more meetings among the major stakeholders. There is no end to statements by these leaders. Ukraine is receiving serious attention now.

President Zelenskyy had shared his views on the recent developments related to Ukraine with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11th August.

Mr Putin has stated he wants the root causes of the conflict to be addressed. The issues involved in the Ukraine war will no longer be in the domain of imagination or some guess work by experts. Soon, it will be apparent whether Ukraine moves towards peace or the war continues.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to White House on Monday to get a briefing on the Alaska discussions.

Fast-paced developments on Sunday showed this meeting is likely to be crucial on the Ukraine issue as European leaders as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte are joining Mr Zelenskyy at the meeting.

The European leaders comprising the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries that has pledged to support Ukraine, decided on joining Mr Zelenskyy at Washington at a meeting on Sunday afternoon.

Those likely to be at the White House with Mr Zelenskyy for meeting Mr Trump are UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The European leaders’ presence in Washington is likely to empower the Ukraine leader to put forth his point of view at the White House with clarity and necessary force, and not get swayed by the two Super Powers in agreeing to any peace formula.

One of Mr Zelenskyy’s key demands is that Ukraine must not be expected to cede any territory to Russia. Ukraine does not want its sovereignty questioned and has been fighting the war for the integrity of its borders.

Addressing a press conference with Mr Zelenskyy, European Commission President von der Leyen on Sunday said international borders cannot be changed by force. These are decisions to be made by Ukraine and Ukraine alone. These decisions must not be taken without Ukraine in the table, she said.

Mr Zelenskyy stressed that the Ukrainian constitution makes it impossible to give up territory -- and this should only be discussed by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at a trilateral summit.

Speaking about his meeting with President Putin, the US President posted on the X that he had “A great and very successful day in Alaska!”

President Trump’s post made an important revelation that he now appeared to favour a permanent peace deal in place of a ceasefire to discuss a peace settlement.

The Ukraine President and European leaders were keen that Mr Putin must be forced to accept an immediate ceasefire as the unstopped bombing from both sides was taking a heavy toll of soldiers and civilian population.

Mr Trump wrote “The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO.”

“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 wrote.

President Trump said “President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved.”

Presidents of Ukraine and the United States discussed the Alaska meeting in a bilateral format over a phone call for almost an hour and then together with the European Leaders.

Mr Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine is ready to work as productively as possible for the sake of genuine peace. The US President informed him about the main points of his discussions with Mr Putin.

The Ukraine leader noted that America’s strength had an impact on the development of the situation.  

He said he supported Mr Trump’s proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the United States, and Russia, since the most important and sensitive issues can only be discussed at the level of leaders, and such a format is suitable for this.

Meeting the media after their Summit, President Putin said “President Trump and I have established very good direct contacts.” He said “I have repeatedly said that the developments in Ukraine present fundamental threats to Russia’s national security.”

The Russian leader said “we have always considered the Ukrainian people – and I have said this many times – a brotherly people, no matter how strange it may sound in today’s circumstances. We share the same roots, and the current situation is tragic and deeply painful to us. Therefore, our country is sincerely interested in ending this.”

“Yet, we are convinced that, for the conflict resolution in Ukraine to be long-term and lasting, all the root causes of the crisis, which have been repeatedly explained, must be eliminated; all of Russia’s legitimate concerns must be taken into account, and a fair security balance must be restored in Europe and the rest of the world,” he said.

“I agree with President Trump. He said today that Ukraine’s security must be ensured by all means. Of course, we are ready to work on this,” the Russian leader said.

President Trump responded “There were many-many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we have not quite gotten there, but we have made some headway. So, there is no deal until there is a deal.”

The European Union and Canada have welcomed Mr Trump’s assurance that the US will participate in a security guarantees for Ukraine.

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

The European leaders issued a joint statement along with European Commission President von der Leyen and welcomed President Trump's efforts to stop the killings in Ukraine.

“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We welcome President Trump's statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees,” the European leaders stated.