US President Donald Trump has ditched his call for a ceasefire in Ukraine, backing instead Russian President Vladimir Putin’s push for a permanent peace agreement. That has not stopped some European leaders from pushing for a temporary truce first, even though the US president has seemingly decided one is not necessary.

In a shift, Trump now aligns more closely with Putin than allies in Europe in calling for final talks before a ceasefire

The Trump administration has trumpeted a breakthrough in talks with Russia this month, claiming that Mr. Putin had accepted a proposal for the West to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as strong as Article 5 of the NATO charter, which stipulates that an attack on one alliance member is considered an attack on all.

Under the proposed Russian deal, Kyiv would fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the sources said.

President Trump is pushing for direct talks between Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. However, there has been no word directly from Russia that Putin has said yes. Foreign Policy Editor-in-chief Ravi Agrawal and former U.