European leaders to back Zelensky today as Trump says Kyiv can end war ‘immediately’ - US president asks Kyiv to forget Crimea and Nato membership for peace deal

Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff says Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed to allow the U.S. and Europe to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate.

US President Donald Trump also advocated for a direct peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, emphasising that "Russia is a very big power, and they're not”.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump that the United States and its European allies could offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the war,

Surprisingly, Trump’s remarks ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy came even after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that Moscow was willing to let the US and its European allies provide Nato-style security guarantees to Kyiv as part of a potential peace deal,

President Trump’s first-term ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, warned on Sunday that Chinese President Xi Jinping “is watching” President Trump’s approach to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed at their summit in Alaska last week that the U.S. would be able to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, according to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy,

As the front lines froze, and air defenses got better, Russia and Ukraine pivoted away from close bombing runs to standoff attacks.

At their Alaska summit, Trump and Putin discussed a peace framework in which Russia would return small occupied areas of Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding larger eastern territories, halting Nato ambitions,