BRATISLAVA. He claimed that the war in Ukraine would be resolved within 24 hours."I thought it would be the easiest of all [things], but it's the hardest," US President Donald Trump admitted to Fox News on Friday.

Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which was expected to make a significant breakthrough in negotiations to end the war, however, left more questions than answers.

Now everything depends on the developments in the coming days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the Oval Office on Monday.

He probably won't get a red carpet or fighter jets, but he will be accompanied in the negotiations by a coalition of the willing, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

European leaders said on Sunday they would join the Ukrainian president on his trip to the White House.

Washington will also be visited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Armed with flattery

Despite the US president's claims that the summit was"ten out of ten", the situation appears to represent a huge victory for the Russian president.

Trump has adopted Putin's position, deciding that a peace deal is preferable to a ceasefire. This gives the Russian president time to continue Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

Moscow would give up parts of occupied Ukraine, while Kiev would cede parts of its eastern territory to Russia, according to peace proposals discussed by the presidents, according to Reuters.

The Russian president is demanding Ukraine's withdrawal from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for ending the war, while offering to freeze the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

According to Reuters sources, Russia would also be ready to return pieces of Ukrainian land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

After returning from Alaska, according to The Financial Times, Putin reportedly said that the summit with Trump had brought Russia closer to"necessary" solutions, which include Ukraine's capitulation to the maximalist demands that led to the 2022 attack.

Luhansk is almost completely under Russian control, but Donetsk remains under Ukrainian control in key parts.

In any case, Zelensky refuses to give in to Russian demands. On Saturday, the Ukrainian president's European allies also stood by him on the issue.

The US president threatened Putin in various ways, including sanctions, but it simply helped the Russian president that he came to Trump armed with flattery, comments The Financial Times.

Analysts say Putin has successfully reframed the negotiations to make a ceasefire the ultimate goal, rather than a starting point.

The Russian president's demands, however, would end Ukrainian statehood, but also reverse the post-Cold War security architecture in Europe, while ceding key strategic positions to Russia, The Financial Times warns.

Nobody knows

However, the United States is reportedly offering Ukraine security guarantees similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which states that any attack against a NATO member will be considered an attack against all NATO members.

The proposal, which was put forward during Saturday's phone calls between European leaders, Trump and Zelensky, was approved by Putin, according to a source who spoke to AFP, reports the Euractiv portal.

The starting point of the proposal was to define a collective security clause that would allow Ukraine to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the United States, the Italian prime minister said in a statement after speaking with the US president by phone. Meloni has been pushing a similar idea for months.

However, everything remains questionable.

"Nobody knows how this could work. Nor why Putin would agree to it if he is categorically against NATO and against effective guarantees of Ukrainian sovereignty," another source told AFP, adding that Meloni's statement did not mention whether the idea had been discussed with Putin.

The Ukrainian government has long sought to join NATO, which Russia cites as one of the reasons for the war in Ukraine.

Putin, according to the Axios portal, said he was willing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, but mentioned China as one of the possible guarantors. This suggests that he is against a security force consisting of NATO troops.

The agreement on Article 5-like security guarantees was finally confirmed later Sunday by the US President's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who said Putin had agreed to the proposal.

It's long overdue.

In any case, the American president argues that he is building peace around the world at an extraordinary pace.

However, the events in Alaska, according to CNN, have blown a hole in the White House's claim that Trump is a president of peace.

Trump claims to have been responsible for calming the situation between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. All he misses now are Ukraine and Russia.

"They'll never give me the Nobel Peace Prize," the US president complained during a February meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office."It's a shame. I deserve it, but they'll never give it to me."

In July, he even called Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg to discuss trade tariffs, but the topic eventually reached the Nobel Peace Prize, reports Politico magazine.

If successful, Trump would be the fifth president of the United States to receive the award – after Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

Friday's meeting between Trump and Putin offered the American president an ideal opportunity to advance negotiations and possibly secure a nomination, but given the vague outcome of the summit, this is unlikely, as his peacemaking skills have not been demonstrated.

Despite the vague outcome, Trump made a contradictory statement to Fox News after the summit:"It seems like I have the ability to end [conflicts]."

However, several countries trying to impress Trump, including Israel, Pakistan and Cambodia, have already nominated the US president for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament in accordance with the instructions of the 19th-century Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, selects the laureates each year from hundreds of nominees. The winners are announced each October in Oslo.

And while Pakistan and Cambodia fear the Trump administration's trade war, Israel is eager for US support in its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

According to White House spokeswoman Karolina Leavitt, it is long overdue for Trump to receive the award, she said on July 31.

CNN argues that Trump remains the best hope for peace in Ukraine, as he can talk to Putin, unlike European leaders or Zelensky.

Ultimately, US power will be needed to guarantee Ukrainian security, as the Europeans do not have the capacity to do so.

"But Trump would have to want it first and foremost, because right now he seems to be under Putin's spell again," comments CNN.