US president Donald Trump on Saturday split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, adopting Mr Putin’s plan for a sweeping peace agreement based on Ukraine ceding unoccupied territory to Russia, instead of the urgent ceasefire Mr Trump had said he wanted before the meeting.

Skipping ceasefire discussions would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are expected to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine visits Mr Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Trump and European allies, as well as Mr Zelenskiy, had agreed to before the US-Russia summit in Alaska.

Mr Trump told European leaders that he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr Zelenskiy agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.

In return, Mr Putin offered a ceasefire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. He has broken similar promises before.

Mr Trump had threatened stark economic penalties if Mr Putin left the meeting without a deal to end the war, but, as European and Russian officials acknowledged, he suspended those threats in the wake of the summit.

The American president’s moves got a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr Putin.

Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Saturday that he spoke by phone to Mr Zelenskiy and European leaders after his meeting with Mr Putin. He said that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

European leaders made clear, publicly and privately, that was not the case. They issued a statement that did not echo Mr Trump’s claim that peace talks were preferable to a ceasefire. Britain, France, Germany and others welcomed Mr Trump’s efforts to stop the war but threatened to increase economic penalties on Russia “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues”.

Still, in public statements, the European leaders praised Mr Trump – in mellower terms than normal – for his efforts to broker peace, and in particular for his pledge to involve the United States in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security going forward.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said in a statement that Mr Trump supported a collective-security clause that would allow Ukraine “to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the US, ready to take action if it is attacked again”.

Mr Trump confirmed Mr Zelenskiy’s announcement earlier on Saturday that the Ukrainian president would come to the White House on Monday. If that visit goes well, Mr Trump said, he would schedule another meeting with Mr Putin.

With Russia advancing on the battlefield, a ceasefire would give Ukraine relief from Moscow’s attacks and deprive Mr Putin of some leverage at the bargaining table. Before his meeting with Mr Putin, Mr Trump had agreed with European allies and Mr Zelenskiy that no peace negotiations could begin without a ceasefire in place.

Mr Zelenskiy, who was left out of the summit, said in a statement that he and Mr Trump would on Monday “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war”.

Mr Trump, in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit, put the onus for securing peace on Mr Zelenskiy. “Now it is really up to President Zelenskiy to get it done,” he said. “I would also say the European nations have to get involved a little bit.”

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has demanded that Ukraine cede a large part of its land, disarm, swear off joining Nato and change governments.