Leaders set to meet to try to protect peace deal after Putin demands Ukraine withdraws from Donetsk and Luhansk

US President Donald Trump said after the meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Friday that he wants to bypass a ceasefire and move straight to a permanent peace deal.

Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks.

Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives.

Putin told Trump that in exchange for Donetsk and Luhansk, he would halt further advances and freeze the frontline in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces occupy significant areas.