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Top US and European military officers met in Washington Tuesday to discuss the mechanics of a possible Ukraine peace deal, after President Donald Trump ruled out sending American troops to back an agreement but suggested air support instead.In a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the war, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.But while Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, those promises have been met with extreme caution by Kyiv and Western capitals, and many details remain vague.Putin proposed holding the summit with Zelensky in Moscow, three sources familiar with a call between Trump and the Russian leader told AFP. One source said Zelensky immediately said no to meeting in the capital of his country’s invader.As Western leaders push for an agreement, top US officer General Dan Caine held talks Tuesday evening with European military chiefs to discuss “best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal,” a US defense official told AFP.The in-person talks precede a virtual meeting of military chiefs from NATO’s 32 member countries on Wednesday, in which Caine is also scheduled to participate.Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, earlier said that European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement.”France and Germany, a couple of them, UK, they want to have boots on the ground,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air.”Asked what assurances Trump had that US boots would not be on the ground, he replied: “Well, you have my assurance and I’m president.”- Allies discuss next steps -The White House later doubled down on Trump’s statements — but gave few new details on either the summit or the security guarantees.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump “has definitively stated US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine” and that the use of US air power was an “option and a possibility.” Leavitt insisted that Putin had promised Trump he would meet Zelensky, and said top US officials were “coordinating” with Russia on a summit.Trump had dramatically interrupted his meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans at the White House on Monday to call the Russian leader.Allies have expressed doubts that Putin will go through with the meeting, but the Europeans are seizing on the possibility of a peace deal following the Trump talks.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought together around 30 of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing” for virtual consultations.Starmer told them coalition teams and US officials would meet in the coming days to “prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.- Geneva, Budapest floated for summits -Russia has warned that any solution must also protect its own “security interests” and has ruled out Ukraine joining NATO.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly.”Lavrov’s comments, and Putin’s offer of Moscow as a summit venue, reinforced European fears that Russia was once again stalling. Macron said he wanted the summit to take place in Geneva, a historic venue for peace talks.Switzerland said it was ready to offer immunity to Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war.Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have both said the summit could take place in two weeks.The White House declined to comment on a Politico report that it was eying Hungary’s capital Budapest as a venue for a follow-up three-way summit including Trump.On the streets of Kyiv, there was skepticism about whether the latest talks can end the grinding conflict.”The main problem is Putin himself doesn’t want it,” said Anton, 32, who works in a warehouse.But in Moscow, some people were more optimistic. “I hope we can agree on mutually beneficial terms,” said Vyacheslav, 23, who works for the government. burs-dk/wd/st

The Venezuelan government on Tuesday claimed that 66 Venezuelan children are being illegally held in the United States after being separated from their parents during deportation, as the White House cracks down on immigration.Caracas is demanding the children be handed over to Venezuelan authorities so they can be repatriated.”We have 66 children kidnapped in the United States. It’s a number that grows each day… a cruel and inhumane policy,” said Camila Fabri, president of the government’s Return to the Homeland program that advocates for the voluntary return of people who left the country.She spoke at a gathering at which women read out letters to US First Lady Melania Trump asking her to intercede on behalf of the children, who they said had been placed in foster care.More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest population exodus in Latin America’s recent history, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. It blamed “rampant violence, inflation, gang-warfare, soaring crime rates as well as shortages of food, medicine and essential services.”In recent years Venezuelans in the United States had been granted temporary protected immigration status, allowing them to live and work there for a designated time period. But President Donald Trump’s administration revoked that protection as part of his aggressive campaign to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States.The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment on the claim by Caracas.To date, 21 stranded children have been returned to Venezuela, including a daughter of one of the 252 Venezuelans detained in Trump’s immigration crackdown in March, who was accused without evidence of gang activity and deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.   The men were freed in a prisoner swap in July and flown home to Venezuela, where four of them told AFP they suffered beatings, abuse and deprivation.Fabri said that 10,631 Venezuelans have returned in 2025, both those deported frm the United States and others stranded in Mexico.The White House has also squared off against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces federal drug trafficking charges, with the US placing a $50 million bounty on him. Washington, which does not recognize Maduro’s past two election victories, accuses the South American country’s leader of leading a cocaine trafficking gang, and has launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.On Monday Maduro said he would deploy millions of militia members in the country in response to the US “threats.”

Donald Trump said Tuesday that a Ukraine peace deal could boost his chances of getting to heaven — joking that his odds of making it through the pearly gates are currently low.The 79-year-old US president has previously said he wants to end Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of his bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize.But a day after hosting the leaders of Ukraine and several European nations at the White House, Trump said his motivations were not all earthly.”I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” Trump told Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends.””I hear I’m not doing well — I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole! But if I can get to heaven this will be one of the reasons.”By traditional yardsticks the three-times-married, twice-impeached Trump is no saint.The billionaire Republican has been embroiled in a number of scandals over the years and is the first president to have a criminal conviction, in his instance a hush money case involving payouts to a porn star.But Trump has taken on an increasingly religious tone since surviving an assassination attempt last year. He said at his inauguration in January that he had been “saved by God to make America great again.”Boasting strong support from America’s religious right, Trump has embraced the trappings of faith far more strongly in his second term in the White House.He has notably appointed an official spiritual adviser, Paula White, who has led a number of prayer gatherings that have seen attendees lay their hands on Trump at White House events.Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday she believed “the president was serious” about his Ukraine comments.”I think the president wants to get to heaven, as I hope we all do in this room,” the 27-year-old Leavitt — who herself holds prayer sessions before her briefings — told reporters.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending US troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.In a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the war, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.But while Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, those promises have been met with extreme caution by Kyiv and Western capitals, and many details remain vague.Putin proposed holding the summit with Zelensky in Moscow, three sources familiar with the Trump call told AFP. One source said Zelensky immediately said no to meeting in the capital of his country’s invader.Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, said that European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement.”France and Germany, a couple of them, UK, they want to have boots on the ground,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air.”Asked what assurances Trump had that US boots would not be on the ground, he replied: “Well, you have my assurance and I’m president.”- Allies discuss next steps -The White House later doubled down on Trump’s statements — but gave few new details on either the summit or the security guarantees.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump “has definitively stated US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine” and that the use of US air power was “option and a possibility.” Leavitt insisted that Putin had promised Trump he would meet Zelensky, and said top US officials were “coordinating” with Russia on a summit.Trump had dramatically interrupted his meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans at the White House on Monday to call the Russian leader.Allies have expressed doubts that Putin will go through with the meeting.The Europeans are however seizing on the possibility of a peace deal following the Trump talks.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought together around 30 of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing” for virtual consultations.Starmer told them coalition teams and US officials would meet in the coming days to “prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.The military chiefs of staff of all 32 nations in the NATO military alliance will meet by video Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, officials said.- Geneva, Budapest floated for summits -Russia has warned that any solution must also protect its own “security interests” and has ruled out Ukraine joining NATO.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly.”Lavrov’s comments, and Putin’s offer of Moscow as a summit venue, reinforced European fears that Russia was once again stalling. Macron said he wanted the summit to take place in Geneva, a historic venue for peace talks.Switzerland said it was ready to offer immunity to Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war.Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have both said the summit could take place in two weeks.The White House declined to comment on a Politico report that it was eying Hungary’s capital Budapest as a venue for a follow-up three-way summit including Trump.On the streets of Kyiv, there was skepticism about whether the latest talks can end the grinding conflict.”The main problem is Putin himself doesn’t want it,” said Anton, 32, who works in a warehouse.But in Moscow, some people were more optimistic. “I hope we can agree on mutually beneficial terms,” said Vyacheslav, 23, who works for the government. burs-dk/st

Former champion boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been detained in Mexico after deportation by the United States to face drug cartel-related charges, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.Chavez, the son of legendary fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, was handed over at midday Monday and transferred to a prison in Mexico’s northwest Sonora state, according to information on the country’s National Detention Registry.”He was deported,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters, adding that there was an arrest warrant for him in Mexico.US authorities arrested Chavez in July for being in the United States illegally. They also said he was wanted in Mexico for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.His extradition comes as US President Donald Trump cracks down on immigrants as part of a promise to deport millions of people. Chavez’s arrest in July happened days after his lopsided loss to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a cruiserweight bout before a sell-out crowd in California.Once a top-rated boxer, he won the WBC middleweight world title in 2011 and successfully defended it three times. But his career has also included multiple suspensions and fines for failed drug tests.Homeland Security, which oversees US immigration enforcement, said Chavez had entered the United States legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.In April last year, he applied for permanent residency based on his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.”Homeland Security said that in addition to the active warrant in Mexico, Chavez had criminal convictions in the United States, including on weapons charges in 2024 in Los Angeles.

A record 383 aid workers were killed last year, the United Nations said Tuesday, branding the figures and lack of accountability a “shameful indictment” of international apathy, and warning that this year’s toll was equally grim.The 2024 figure was up 31 percent on the year before, the UN said on World Humanitarian Day, “driven by the relentless conflicts in Gaza, where 181 humanitarian workers were killed, and in Sudan, where 60 lost their lives”.It said state actors were the most common perpetrators of the killings last year, and most of the victims were local staff attacked in the line of duty or in their homes.Besides those killed, 308 aid workers were wounded, 125 kidnapped and 45 detained.”Humanitarians must be respected and protected. They can never be targeted,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.”This rule is non-negotiable and is binding on all parties to conflict, always and everywhere. Yet red lines are crossed with impunity,” he said, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice.- ‘Life-saving work’ -Provisional figures from the Aid Worker Security Database show that 265 aid workers have been killed this year to August 14.”Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy,” said UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, head of its humanitarian agency OCHA.”Violence against aid workers is not inevitable. It must end.”OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said “very, very few” people had “ever been brought to justice for any of these attacks”.The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said 18 of its staff and volunteers had been killed so far this year “while carrying out their life-saving work”.”Each killing sends a dangerous message that their lives were expendable. They were not,” the group said.Meanwhile the UN’s World Health Organization said 1,121 health workers and patients had been killed and hundreds injured in attacks across 16 territories —  with most deaths in Sudan.”Each attack inflicts lasting harm, deprives entire communities of life-saving care when they need it the most, endangers health care providers, and weakens already strained health systems,” the WHO said.- Frustration with impunity -World Humanitarian Day marks the day in 2003 when UN rights chief Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other humanitarians were killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.Current UN deputy human rights chief Nada al-Nashif — who survived that blast — urged countries to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to go after the perpetrators of such attacks.”It’s supreme frustration with impunity,” she told AFP.”Where the pursuit in national jurisdictions is not coming through — then we have to resort to universal jurisdiction.”Speaking of the Baghdad attack, she said: “I lost a finger, I was badly hurt, I had about six surgeries over four years, but it is nothing, it pales in comparison to what we lost that day.”I am really saddened that we are in the same place now, where the United Nations is being undermined.”We are being manipulated again, attacked, directly, and find ourselves prey to misinformation and disinformation at a time when more than ever we need a robust, vivid and dynamic UN.”

Mexican drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada will plead guilty at a hearing next Monday, US court filings show, raising the prospect of a cooperation deal with prosecutors.Zambada, who cofounded the Sinaloa Cartel with notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was arrested in the United States in July 2024 along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo.Zambada, 77, alleged that he had been kidnapped in Mexico and handed to the US against his will, caught in an apparent attempt by Guzman Lopez to gain leniency for himself and an imprisoned brother.”The August 25, 2025 status conference is converted to a change of plea hearing,” said an entry in the court docket updated Monday.Zambada will avoid a trial because of the plea.Last September, Zambada pleaded not guilty to 17 charges including murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic 50 times stronger than cocaine, responsible for tens of thousands of US overdose deaths annually.In addition to avoiding the dock, an agreement with prosecutors could lead to a lighter sentence than that of El Chapo, who is serving life imprisonment in the United States.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that US air support and European ground troops could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, warning of a “rough” situation if talks between Moscow and Kyiv fail.”When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,” he told Fox News, referring to European allies whom he met in the White House on Monday.”We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air, because no one has the kind of stuff we have, really, they don’t,” Trump said.He added his “assurance” that no US ground troops would deploy to Ukraine, and he categorically ruled out Ukraine joining the Western military alliance NATO.Post-war security is a key concern for Kyiv after more than three years of Russian invasion. Moscow has long said it will not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO and has been hostile to the idea of Western troops deploying to the former Soviet territory.Trump said that “France and Germany, a couple of them, UK — they want to have boots on the ground.””I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you. I think, I think Putin is tired of” the war, he added.Trump said that following his talks Monday with European leaders he is pushing to organize a bilateral summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — followed by another where he will join.”I called President Putin, and we’re trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky. We’ll see what happens there,” he said. “If that works out, if it works out, then I’ll go to the trilat and close it up.”Saying it was possible Putin would back out, Trump said “I hope President Putin’s going to be good and if not, it’s going to be a rough situation.”Zelensky “has to show some flexibility also.”In addition to the question of guaranteeing Ukraine’s future security, the other key sticking point in ending the war is the status of the huge swaths of land occupied by Russia.Trump said Ukraine has to accept it will not get its lost territories back — including the eastern Donbas region — but in return will get peace.”I assume you’ve all seen the map. You know, a big chunk of territory is taken and that territory has been taken. Now they’re talking about Donbas, but Donbas right now, as you know, is 79 percent owned and controlled by Russia,” Trump said.The US leader said Ukraine was not powerful enough to change the situation.”This was a war and Russia is a powerful military nation, you know. Whether people like it or not, it’s a powerful nation. It’s a much bigger nation,” he said. “You don’t take, you don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size.””Everybody can play cute and this and that, but, you know, Ukraine is going to get their life back,” Trump said about a peace deal involving Ukraine surrendering land. “They’re going to stop having people killed all over the place and they’re going to get a lot of land.”

Russia said Tuesday that any deal on Ukraine should ensure its own security and that of Russians in Ukraine, as Kyiv’s allies met to discuss possible peace talks, after suggestions that Volodymyr Zelensky could sit down with Vladimir Putin.Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met in Washington on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.But Russia warned that any solution of the war in Ukraine must respect “Russia’s security interests”, with its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov adding that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly”.Face-to-face talks between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since Russia’s brutal invasion three-and-a-half years ago.The Ukraine war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, defying Trump’s push to end it.Lavrov told state TV channel Rossiya 24 that any deal to end the conflict must ensure the rights of “Russian-speaking people who live in Ukraine.”His comments came as France and Britain were co-hosting a virtual meeting of about 30 of Kyiv’s allies known as the “coalition of the willing” to “keep them up to date on what was decided”, President Emmanuel Macron told French news channel LCI.He added that work on setting the peace talks will start after that, hinting at Geneva as a possible location. Macron also voiced wider European concern about Moscow’s territorial ambitions, after suggestions Ukraine could be forced to concede parts of the embattled Donbas region still under its control.On the streets of Kyiv, there was scepticism about whether the latest talks can end the grinding conflict.”The main problem is Putin himself doesn’t want it,” Anton, 32, who works in a warehouse, told AFP. “They can meet as many times as they want but Putin doesn’t need it and Donald Trump doesn’t really know what to do.” But in Moscow, some people were more hopeful. “I hope we can agree on mutually beneficial terms,” said Vyacheslav, 23, who works for the government. He added that it would have been better if the meeting between the presidents happened “at the very beginning.”- Open to talks -Trump, who last week held talks with Putin in Alaska, wrote on his Truth Social network after Monday’s meetings that he called Putin to start planning peace talks with Zelensky.A three-way summit with both leaders would then be held, he added.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was part of the European delegation, said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks.Zelensky said he was “ready” to meet his bitter foe Putin and on Tuesday hailed the Washington talks as a “truly significant step toward ending the war and ensuring the security of Ukraine and our people”.In Moscow, where a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine, Lavrov said the United States had now taken “a much deeper approach to resolving the crisis”.Trump’s summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce a ceasefire and, just before Monday’s talks, a Russian drone strike on an apartment block in Kharkiv killed seven, including two children.Zelensky rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia.- Security guarantees -Trump meanwhile said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and that Putin had agreed to them, despite ruling out Kyiv’s long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.The guarantees “would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America”, he said.The Financial Times said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.Zelensky later spoke to reporters about a $90-billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO — both key demands made by Putin.burs/dc

Ukraine’s allies were meeting on Tuesday to discuss the outcome of fast-moving talks to end the war with Russia, after indications that Volodymyr Zelensky could sit down with Vladimir Putin for a peace summit.Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.The Ukraine war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, defying Trump’s push to end it.A face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since Russia’s brutal invasion nearly three-and-a-half years ago.French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Washington for the talks on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, said France and Britain would hold a meeting on Tuesday with around 30 of Kyiv’s allies.The virtual meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” would “keep them up to date on what was decided”, Macron told French news channel LCI. “Right after that, we’ll start concrete work with the Americans.”Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are co-hosting the meeting, which will “discuss next steps” for Ukraine, a UK government spokesperson told AFP, as Kyiv seeks backing from allies to enforce any peace deal.Macron suggested Geneva could host peace talks, but said it was “up to Ukraine” to decide whether to make concessions on territory, including parts of the eastern Donbas region still under its control.”Putin has rarely honoured his commitments,” he added, calling the Russian leader a “predator, an ogre at our gates” — comments that underscored wider European wariness.Putin “has constantly been a force for destabilisation. He has sought to redraw borders to increase his power,” Macron said.- Open to talks -Trump, who last week held talks with Putin in Alaska, wrote on his Truth Social network after Monday’s meetings that “everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine”.”At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” he added.Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was part of the European delegation, said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks.Zelensky said he was “ready” to meet his bitter foe Putin, while in Moscow, a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine.Trump’s summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce any ceasefire, with no let-up since in daily Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.Zelensky then rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia.The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Commission and NATO then announced that they would also be attending, in a pointed show of support.Zelensky also met one-on-one in the Oval Office with Trump in their first encounter there since their acrimonious blow-up in February.The Ukrainian president said the meeting was their “best” yet, with little of the tension that erupted when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of TV cameras for not being “grateful” for US support.- Security guarantees -Trump meanwhile said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that Putin had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv’s long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.The guarantees “would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America”, he said.The Financial Times, citing a document seen by the newspaper, said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.Zelensky later spoke to reporters about a $90-billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO — both key demands made by Putin.burs-phz/jhb