Overview

• At the Alaska summit, President Trump abandoned his ceasefire-first stance and aligned with President Putin on negotiating a comprehensive peace deal requiring Ukraine to cede the Donbas and recognize Russian control over Crimea.
• President Zelenskyy arrives at a Monday White House meeting flanked by European leaders including Macron, Starmer and von der Leyen to resist any agreement that sacrifices Ukrainian land.
• U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and other officials indicated they could extend “Article 5-like” security guarantees from the United States and European partners under a treaty-level framework without granting full NATO membership.
• Kyiv stresses that Ukraine’s constitution bans ceding territory and highlights the failure of past assurances after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea under the Budapest Memorandum.
• Russian drone and missile strikes continued during and after the Alaska summit, underscoring the difficulty of negotiating peace without an enforced ceasefire.