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World News Live: Zelenskyy to meet Trump on Monday

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, at a time when the US president has shifted to saying an overall peace agreement — and not a ceasefire — is the next step in ending the Ukraine war.

Trump’s abrupt reversal, aligning himself with a position held by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, came in a social media post on Saturday, hours after they concluded a summit in Alaska that produced no agreement to halt the fighting. Putin has long said that Moscow is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes the Kremlin’s interests into account.

After calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump posted that “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.”

In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire, saying they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.” (AP)