Is the agreement near? Trump praises "significant progress" regarding Russia

SadaNews - On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump praised "significant progress" made regarding Russia, following days after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, at a summit described as high-stakes aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump wrote on his platform "Truth Social": "Significant progress regarding Russia. Stay tuned!" without providing any additional details.

The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, concerning the Russian war in Ukraine, extended for three hours on Friday as the two presidents sought a way to end one of the bloodiest conflicts in Europe in 80 years.

No agreement was reached at the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to find a solution or to halt the war in Ukraine, although the leaders described the talks as "fruitful".

Reports indicated that during the Alaska summit, the Russian president offered to concede some territorial demands in exchange for control over the Donetsk region.

For his part, Trump stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would visit the White House on Monday.

He added: "If things go well, we will schedule a meeting with President Putin".

Weitkov: Putin agreed to a defensive clause

American envoy Steve Weitkov stated to CNN that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow a joint defense clause for Ukraine in any future peace agreement.

Weitkov said the clause - similar to NATO's "Article 5", which stipulates that any attack on one party is an attack on all - was a means to circumvent Russia's insistence that Ukraine cannot join NATO.

Weitkov said: "We have reached an agreement that allows the U.S. and other European countries to present a similar formulation to Article 5 to cover a security guarantee".

Putin stated that Ukraine's accession to NATO represents a threat. Thus, we were discussing the assumption of its resilience, and the assumption of Ukrainians' acceptance of it - and everything would be according to what satisfies them - but assuming their ability to do so, we managed to obtain the following concession, which is that the United States could provide protection resembling Article 5, he said.

Weitkov said it was "the first time we hear the Russians agree" to include such a clause in a peace agreement.