Russia 'complicating' end to war, says Zelensky as Trump urges Ukraine to agree to Moscow peace deal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia's refusal to agree to a ceasefire is complicating efforts to end the war, BBC reported.

"We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation," he said in a statement on 'X'. 

On Monday, the Ukrainian leader travel to Washington DC, where US President Donald Trump has said he will urge Zelensky to agree to a peace deal.

Trump has said he wants to bypass a ceasefire in Ukraine to move directly to a permanent peace agreement after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to BBC.

 

Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza, spokesperson says

Gaza residents will be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to the south of the enclave "to ensure their safety," the Israeli military said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, home to about 2.2 million people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Sunday said that before launching the offensive, the civilian population will be evacuated to what he described as "safe zones" from Gaza City, which he called Hamas' last stronghold.

The shelter equipment will be transferred via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza by the United Nations and other international relief organisations after being inspected by defence ministry personnel, the military said, according to Reuters.

Suffering Ukrainians dismayed by outcome and optics of Trump-Putin summit

Ukrainians expressed anger and frustration on Saturday over the failure of the U.S. and Russian presidents to agree on the need for a truce in the Ukraine war at a summit, and the sight of Donald Trump giving Vladimir Putin a red-carpet welcome in Alaska, Reuters reported.

Trump urged Ukraine to make a deal to end the war because "Russia is a very big power". Trump also said he agreed with Putin that the sides should focus on an overall peace settlement, not via a ceasefire, as Kyiv and its European allies have been demanding - until now with U.S. support.

"He (Putin) won. Trump showed his attitude towards him and at the same time towards us. This meeting did not end well for Ukraine," said a 26-year-old soldier who gave only his call-sign "Dzha".

"... we need to end the war. We need to really sit down at the negotiating table and talk, come to an agreement, because every day fighters die, get injured."

Putin wins Ukraine concessions in Alaska but did not get all he wanted

In a few short hours in Alaska, Vladimir Putin managed to convince Donald Trump that a Ukraine ceasefire was not the way to go, stave off U.S. sanctions, and spectacularly shatter years of Western attempts to isolate the Russian president, Reuters reported.

Outside Russia, Putin was widely hailed as the victor of the Alaska summit while at home, Russian state media cast the U.S. president as a prudent statesman, even as critics in the West accused him of being out of his depth.

Russian state media made much of the fact that Putin was afforded a military fly-over, that Trump waited for him on the red carpet, and then let the Russian president ride with him in the back of the "Big Beast", the U.S. presidential limousine.

"Western media are in a state that could be described as derangement verging on complete insanity," said Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign minister spokeswoman, according Reuters.