Trump Urges Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks, War Deal Nears

Photo: AP

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has asked Ukraine and Russia to hold “very high-level talks” to try and end the bloody war that has been going on for three years. Trump said both sides are “very close to a deal” and now need to meet to “finish it off.”

Trump shared this message on his Truth Social website right after he arrived in Rome to attend Pope Francis’ funeral.

His comments came after his representative, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow earlier that day and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his post, Trump wrote, “They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”

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However, Trump’s statements caused a lot of anger too. In a recent interview, he said, “Crimea will stay with Russia,” which many people criticized. Crimea is a region by the Black Sea that Russia took from Ukraine in 2014, and most countries around the world still believe it belongs to Ukraine.

Trump has often said that Ukraine should agree to give up Crimea to Russia in order to make peace. In the interview, Trump said, “Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not directly respond to Trump’s comment, but he repeated what he has always said — that Ukraine will never agree to give away any of its land to Russia.

Trump has been pushing Ukraine to start talks with Russia quickly, saying that by refusing to negotiate, Zelenskyy is making the war last longer. But leaders from Europe have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin instead, saying he is delaying peace talks and trying to take even more Ukrainian land.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have said that if progress is not made soon, they might rethink their support for Ukraine, including possibly cutting back military help.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said there was no strict deadline for making a peace deal, but he wanted the war to end as soon as possible. “I just want to do it as fast as possible,” Trump said. “Negotiators are pretty close to a deal.”

While in Rome, Trump also said he might meet with President Zelenskyy. However, it was not clear if Zelenskyy would be able to attend the funeral in time for a meeting.

Steve Witkoff’s trip to Moscow was his second visit this month and the fourth one since February. His meeting with Putin came during a tense time, as a top Russian military officer had recently been killed in a car bomb explosion near Moscow.

The Kremlin released a short video showing Putin and Witkoff greeting each other. Witkoff asked, “How are you, Mr. President?” and Putin replied, “Fine, just fine, thank you.”

Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the meeting was “constructive” and “useful,” and that more talks are expected soon.

During their meeting, Putin and Witkoff talked about restarting direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which had been stopped since Russia launched a full invasion in February 2022. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also sounded hopeful, saying the talks were “moving in the right direction,” but warned that there were still details to sort out.

However, even as talks continue, the fighting has not stopped. On Friday, a Russian drone attack on an apartment building in Pavlohrad, a city in southeastern Ukraine, killed three people and injured ten more.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 103 Shahed drones overnight, hitting five regions. Luckily, no one was killed in the northeastern regions of Sumy and Kharkiv, but there was damage to civilian buildings.

President Zelenskyy also said that Russian forces had stepped up ground attacks. He explained that while Ukraine was busy defending itself from airstrikes, Russia used the chance to attack Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.

Zelenskyy shared that Ukraine had agreed to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire 44 days ago. But Russia kept attacking even after that.

In recent days, Russian forces also attacked the city of Sumy, killing over 30 people, including those who were attending a Palm Sunday service. Other cities like Odesa and Zaporizhzhia were also hit badly.

The situation remains very uncertain. Trump hopes a peace deal can be made soon. But Russia’s ongoing attacks are making it very difficult. Ukraine has made it clear that they will not give up any of their land to end the war — they want all their territory back before agreeing to anything.