US President Donald Trump Friday called to Ukraine And Russia To meet for “very high level talks”, saying that they are “very close to an agreement” to end the bloody three -year war.
Trump posted on his social site Truth shortly after his arrival in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis that it was a “good day” of discussions and meetings between the two parties. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday,
“They are very close to an agreement, and the two parties should now meet, at very high levels, to” finish “, wrote Trump. “Most of the main points are accepted. Stop the bloodshed now. We will be everywhere we must help facilitate the end of this cruel and insane war! ”
Trump’s announcement followed him by saying In an interview published on Friday This “Crimea will remain with Russia”, the last example of how he put pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while the country remains besieged.
He also demanded on social networks before that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “immediately” signed an agreement for a long time giving the United States access to mineral resources in his country.
Progress by finishing the war seemed elusive in the months following Trump’s return to the White House, and his previous allegations of imminent breakthroughs have failed to materialize. On Friday, Russia continued its bombing of Ukraine, killing three people with a drone strike in an apartments building in a city in the Southeast.
Despite a rare Putin’s opinion this week, Trump was largely the goal of Uslenskyy to conclude an agreement that would involve giving in the territory to the invader of Ukraine. In an interview with Time Magazine, Trump described Crimea as a place where Russia has “had their submarines” and “people speak largely Russian”.
“Crimea will stay with Russia,” said Trump. “And Zelensky understands this, and everyone understands that it has been with them for a long time. It is with them long before Trump’s arrival.”
When asked by journalists, Zelenskyy said he did not want to comment on Trump’s statement but repeated, as he did several times during the war, that recognizing Ukrainian territory occupied as Russian is a red line for his country.
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Crimea is a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in the south of Ukraine. He was seized by Russia in 2014, while President Barack Obama was in office, years before the large -scale invasion of his neighbor’s Russia in 2022.
Disagreements on the next steps
Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Putin. The leaders of Western Europe, however, accused Putin of having dragged his feet in the negotiations and of seeking to grasp more Ukrainian land while his army has a momentum of the battlefield.
The war could approach a pivotal moment when the Trump administration weighs its options. Senior American officials had warned that the administration could soon abandon the attempts to stop the war if the two parties did not come to a regulation. This could potentially mean a judgment of American military aid crucial for Ukraine.
Addressing journalists on Friday when he left the White House to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, Trump said that there was no deadline for the conclusion of peace talks.
“I just want to do it as fast as possible,” said Trump. The negotiators are “closely close” to an agreement, he said.
He promised to meet foreign leaders in Rome and said it was “possible” that he could meet Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy, however, said on Friday evening that he was not sure that he went to Rome in time for the funeral.
Friday, Witkoff’s meeting with Putin was their second meeting this month and the fourth since February. Witkoff’s trip coincided with the death of a higher Russian military officer in a car car near Moscow.
The Kremlin has published a short video from Putin and Witkoff greeting. “How are you, Mr. President?” You could hear that Witkoff said. “Very well, very well, thank you,” replied Putin in rare comments in English, while the two were handling hands.
Putin’s foreign policy assistant Yuri Ushakov, who attended talks, said the meeting lasted three hours and was “constructive” and “useful”. Other discussions are expected, he said.
Putin and Witkoff have discussed: “In particular, the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian and Ukraine Federation,” according to Ushakov. The delegations of the two countries met for the last time in the weeks which followed the invasion of Russia in February 2022 of its neighbor.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with “Face The Nation” of CBS that he agreed with Trump’s opinion that negotiations “evolve in the right direction”.
Russia, he said before Trump’s post on Friday evening, is “ready to conclude an agreement, but there are still specific points-elements of this agreement which must be refined”. He refused to provide more details, according to extracts from the interview which will be broadcast on Sunday.
Russia’s attacks make more lives
Meanwhile, Russia continued its bombardment from Ukraine. A drone struck a building in a city in southeast Ukraine, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said on Friday after Trump reprimanded Putin for a major missile and a drone against kyiv who killed 12 people and injured 87.
A 76 -year -old child and woman were one of civilians killed during the night drone strike in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk Ukraine region, the regional administration chief Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces pulled 103 Shahed and Lure drones in five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. The authorities of the northeast regions of Sumy and Kharkiv reported damage to civil infrastructure but no victims.
Russian forces used Thursday’s attack on kyiv as a blanket to launch nearly 150 assaults against Ukrainian positions along the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), Zelenskyy said late Thursday.
“When the maximum of our forces focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians continued to considerably intensify their attacks on the ground,” he wrote on Telegram.
Zelenskyy noted on Thursday that Ukraine had accepted a proposal for an American ceasefire 44 days ago, in the first stage towards a negotiated peace, but that the Russian attacks continued.
During the recent talks, Russia struck the city of Sumy, killing more than 30 civilians gathered to celebrate twigs on Sunday, beaten Odesa with drones and zaporizhzhia castigated with powerful sliding bombs.