President Donald Trump expressed hope that US negotiators can secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, even as Kiev and Moscow launched fresh air strikes early Thursday. The United States wants Russia to agree to cease hostilities unconditionally, officials said Wednesday.
The Kremlin has said it is awaiting details of a US-Ukrainian proposal agreed this week and has given no indication of its readiness to end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands over the past three years. President Vladimir Putin visited Russian troops who had made gains against Ukrainian forces fighting to seize Russian territory in last year’s invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was ready to make a deal. The US has signaled a “strong” response if Putin refuses to make a deal. “People are going to Russia as we speak and hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin.
The White House has said that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy for the Gaza and Ukraine wars, will be in Moscow this week. On Wednesday, Trump did not say whether he would speak to Putin, but said he had received a “positive message” from Moscow, adding, “I hope he will make a ceasefire.”
Horrible bloodshed
“If we can stop the fighting, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to ending this terrible bloodshed,” Trump said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington wanted Moscow’s agreement without preconditions. “That’s what we want to know – if they are willing to do it without preconditions,” Rubio said on a plane to the G7 summit in Canada. “If the answer is ‘yes,’ then we know that we have made real progress and there is a real possibility for peace. If their answer is ‘no,’ that would be very unfortunate and would make their intentions clear.”
Russian news agencies had previously reported that the heads of the CIA and Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency had held a phone conversation for the first time in several years.
Rubio was scheduled to give an update on the initiative at the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada. The defense ministers of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and Poland met in Paris to discuss how they could support Ukraine and any ceasefire.
While the Kremlin had no immediate comment on the US-Ukraine proposal agreed at a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this month that a temporary ceasefire would be unacceptable.
Trump said that if Russia refuses to make a deal, he could face “devastating” sanctions. “I could do things economically that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want peace,” he said.
None of us trust the Russians
The latest dramatic diplomatic turn comes less than two weeks after Trump ousted Ukrainian President Zelensky from the White House, complaining about his lack of gratitude for American aid. Trump halted military aid and intelligence sharing with Kiev, but resumed it after agreeing to a ceasefire proposal on Tuesday.
Trump had previously said he was ready to welcome Zelensky back to the White House and expected to speak with Putin this week. In Kiev, Zelensky said the United States would put pressure on Moscow if it did not accept a ceasefire.
“I understand that we can count on tough measures. I don’t know the details yet, but we are talking about sanctions and strengthening Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters. “Everything depends on whether Russia wants a ceasefire and peace or continues to kill people.”
He said the Ukrainians did not trust that the fighting would stop. “I have stressed this many times, none of us trust the Russians,” he said. Ukraine is suffering increasing pain on the battlefield and losing ground in the east and south of the country, with officials there saying eight people were killed on Wednesday.
Russia has also regained territory in its western Kursk region, pushing back Ukrainian troops who launched a surprise attack last August. On Wednesday, Russian television showed Putin visiting troops in Kursk. “I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks faced by our units will be completed and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy,” Putin said.
Russian Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov said 430 Ukrainian soldiers had been captured. Putin called them “terrorists.” Ukrainian military commander-in-chief General Oleksandr Sirsky indicated that some troops in Kursk were being withdrawn to “more favorable positions.” Russia shot down 77 Ukrainian drones overnight, its defense ministry said Thursday, two days after Kiev launched its largest direct attack on Moscow during the three-year war.
According to Roman Mrochko, head of the regional military administration, several Ukrainian cities were also attacked on Thursday morning, and a 42-year-old woman was killed in Kherson. Authorities in Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk have also said they were victims of the attack.
