Russian invasion Negotiations

Zelenskyy rejects Hungary as host of Putin summit

Ukraine must receive concrete security guarantees before Volodymyr Zelenskyy sits down for a meeting with Vladimir Putin. This is what the Ukrainian president says, according to several media outlets.

– We want to get an understanding of the security guarantees within seven to 10 days.

Zelenskyy says that a meeting with Putin could be held in either Switzerland, Austria or Turkey. However, he dismisses Hungary, which has offered to host, because of Viktor Orbán's close ties with the Kremlin.

Analysis: Zero progress after the summits in the US

Despite Trump's lofty words about progress, the rift between Ukraine and Russia is still miles wide after the summits in the US, write Steven Erlanger and Anton Troianovski for the New York Times.

The issue of a potential swap of territories has gone nowhere, Russia has flatly rejected the idea of ​​NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine and there is no indication that Zelensky and Putin will meet.

In Alaska, Putin also appears to have convinced Trump to abandon the idea of ​​a ceasefire before a peace agreement, write Erlanger and Troianovski.

Trump has now pinned his hopes for the Nobel Peace Prize on a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, followed by a trilateral meeting – unlikely to happen, writes Dominic Waghorn for Sky News.

The consensus among Kremlin insiders is that Putin would rather die than sit down with what he sees as an illegitimate leader of a country that has no right to exist, unless it is to negotiate their surrender, he continues.

“The question is whether Trump sees that, or whether he has just written off the diplomatic pomp and circumstance of the past week as a PR win and moved on.”

Sources: Trump scraps summit planning

Donald Trump will no longer try to arrange a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, but will instead let them handle the planning themselves, sources within his administration told The Guardian.

Trump has signaled that he will hold a trilateral meeting after Putin and Zelensky meet one-on-one, but will no longer interfere in how and where it takes place. There are currently no plans for such a meeting. A senior source says the administration has now adopted a “wait and see” stance.

Zelensky said earlier on Thursday that he does not want to meet Putin until Ukraine receives security guarantees from its allies. Putin, for his part, has said that such security guarantees must involve Russia.

Trump: I want to go to heaven but I'm not in a good place

Donald Trump's motive for brokering peace in Ukraine is to try to "get to heaven". The American president said this when he called in to Fox News on Tuesday.

- I want to go to heaven if it's possible. I hear that I'm not in a good place. I hear that I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole, Trump said.

The New York Times writes that it is an unusual comment from a president. Not least from Trump, who has not made a name for himself as an open, vulnerable and self-reflective person.