Trump says Russia and Ukraine are ‘very close to a deal’
[RUSSIA] President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close” to an accord after his special envoy met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow and he called for high-level talks between the two countries to help bring an end to the war.
“A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off,’” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social network on Friday (Apr 25).
“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,” he added.
Trump’s comments come as Washington intensifies its push for a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, with the American president’s envoy Steve Witkoff holding talks with Putin on Friday.
The Kremlin published a short video on Telegram of Witkoff greeting the Russian leader Friday before sitting down at a table with him. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy for economic relations Kirill Dmitriev were also present.
Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that the three-hour conversation was “constructive” and brought the US and Russian positions closer together on multiple issues, including Ukraine. Putin and Witkoff discussed the possibility of resuming direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, he said.
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Witkoff was set to raise with Putin a US demand that Ukraine have the right to have its own army and defense industry as part of any peace agreement, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
Trump, who’s rushing to end the war as he approaches the first 100 days of his presidency, ramped up pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday to accept an agreement that critics fear will favor Moscow. Witkoff’s meeting with Putin was his fourth as the US works to achieve a ceasefire.
Agreeing to let Kyiv maintain its armed forces, as demanded by Ukraine and its European allies, would mean Putin would have to give up on his demand for the “demilitarisation” of the country, one of his main stated aims in the war that’s now in its fourth year.
Other US proposals for a deal have tilted far more in Moscow’s favor, including Washington’s recognition of Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea and freezing the war largely along existing battle lines that would leave Putin in control of swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine, Bloomberg earlier reported. Kyiv would also be required to abandon its goal of joining the NATO defense alliance.
The international community has resisted recognizing the Crimean peninsula as Russian to avoid legitimizing Putin’s illegal annexation. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said he won’t cede territory to Moscow.
Asked if he would accept a deal in which Crimea and other regions Putin has taken from Ukraine were folded into Russia, Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, “Crimea will stay with Russia.” He added that Zelenskiy “understands that.”
The US leader had said on Thursday that he’s putting “a lot of pressure on both” sides in the war. He said he thought Putin “wants to make a deal. We’re going to find out very soon.” Asked what concessions Russia has offered, Trump said, “Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country – pretty big concession.”
Zelenskiy has acknowledged that Ukrainian forces would be unable to regain control over Crimea.
“This is true what Trump says, that we don’t have enough weapon – weapons, not people – to regain control of Crimea by arms,” he told reporters Friday. BLOOMBERG
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