Donald Trump expresses hope for ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump, President of the US (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump believes that a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia will be reached at some point. He also expressed hope that this will happen in the near future, according to his comments to journalists published by the White House.
When asked about the current situation between Russia and Ukraine, the US president said:
“I think we'll have a deal at some point hopefully in the not too distant,” he said.
Trump also reminded journalists about the military losses in the war in Ukraine.
“So I don't know if you saw the numbers that just came out, 30,000 soldiers were killed this current month, and there was that intelligence 30,000. 27,000 the month before,” the US leader said.
At the same time, Trump avoided giving a direct answer regarding additional sanctions against Russia, which he reportedly discussed with Senator Lindsey Graham.
“We discussed it all the time. There's nothing else I talked to. I don't consider him very exciting to talk to, except when we're talking about legislation, and we talk about legislation all the time. You think that's an exciting relationship? It's not. But we... we talk a lot about legislation, and we have great legislation coming,” the US president said.
Peace settlement for the war in Ukraine and US involvement
As is known, in November, the US proposed a so-called peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. The plan consisted of 28 points and was seen as clearly pro-Russian. Kyiv rejected this version, which also drew criticism from Europe, prompting European partners to step in to help revise it.
After a series of meetings, the plan was later reduced to 20 points. Elements such as territorial concessions to the aggressor, reducing the size of the Ukrainian army, and a NATO membership veto were reportedly removed from the original US peace plan.
The US delegation even traveled to Russia for negotiations with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to discuss and refine the peace plan. However, Russia has not agreed to compromises and continues to insist on the demands outlined in the original plan.
This conclusion comes from Kremlin representatives, who said after talks with the Americans that no compromises were reached, even though both sides publicly spoke about productive negotiations.
The last major meeting regarding the peace settlement was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to Florida on December 28, where he met with Donald Trump. Despite all preparations and seemingly full security guarantees for Ukraine, the most important and controversial issue, territorial questions, has still not been resolved, although the US president says work is ongoing.
Zelenskyy stated that the peace plan is now 90% ready, with 100% security guarantees for Ukraine.
After work on the peace plan in Europe in early January, another meeting is expected between European representatives and the Ukrainian delegation in the US.
