Donald Trump says Ukraine war could end ‘within weeks’, Vladimir Putin ‘will accept’ peacekeepers
Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin ”will accept” European peacekeepers entering Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal, adding the war could end “within weeks”.
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US President Donald Trump said the Ukraine war could end “within weeks” as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House over ending the conflict.
Mr Macron sought to persuade Mr Trump to stick by Kyiv, insisting that Ukraine “must be involved” in talks after the US president opened direct talks with Moscow over the war.
Mr Trump also revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal to end the three-year-old war.
“Yeah, he will accept that. I’ve asked him that question,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while hosting Mr Macron.
“Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for more war. He doesn’t mind,” Mr Trump added.
“But I’ve specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.”
It’s unclear whether the European troops would be stationed inside currently Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine or within Kyiv-held territory to deter further airstrikes.
Mr Macron said through a translator that a potential deployment of troops from his own nation to Ukraine would “be there to maintain peace, they would not be along the front lines, they would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected.
The meeting with Mr Macron marked the first of two closely watched encounters between Mr Trump and European leaders this week, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who has also backed peacekeepers in the war-torn nation — due to visit on Thursday.
Mr Trump also said that he was open to visiting Mr Putin in Moscow after fighting ends — though he added that May 9 commemorations of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II would be too soon.
“If this all gets settled out, which I think it will, sure I would go and he’d come here too,” Mr Trump said.
The American president spoke shortly after the US joined Russia in voting against a pro-Ukraine measure at the United Nations calling for a “just, comprehensive and lasting peace.”
“I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident,” he told reporters of the vote, in which the US joined the likes of Russia, Belarus, Haiti, Hungary, Israel, Nicaragua and North Korea in opposing the resolution.
Mr Trump also said he believes the US and Russia could bolster economic cooperation as part of the Ukraine peace process — after stiff American sanctions during the three-year war.
“We’re trying to do some economic development deals [with Russia]. They have a lot of things that we want, and we’ll see. I mean, I don’t know if that will come to fruition, but we’d love to be able to do that, if we could,” he said.
“You know, they have massive rare earth. It’s a very large — it’s actually the largest in terms of land. It’s by far the largest country. And they have very valuable things that we could use, and we have things that they could use, and it would be very good if we could do that. I think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace.”
Mr Trump added that “the first element of the overall transaction is ending the war. But if, just as we’re doing with Ukraine, if we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want, something like that would be possible, yes.”
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LEADERS CONVERGE ON KYIV
It comes as European leaders and Canadain Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Presidents and prime ministers from Baltic and Nordic countries and Spain arrived by train, joining EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Ukrainian capital, according to various social media posts and Ukraine’s Suspline public broadcaster.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky hailed his country’s “resistance” and “heroism”.
“Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians,” he said, adding: “I thank everyone who defends and supports it.”
Von der Leyen expressed her feelings on social media.
“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe. In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny,” she said in a post on X.
In an apparent rebuke of Mr Trump’s moves to sideline Kyiv from talks on how to end the war, EU Council President Antonio Costa said: “In Ukraine, about Ukraine, with Ukraine.”
Mr Zelensky on has offered to resign if it meant Ukraine could be given NATO membership.
The Kremlin on the eve of the anniversary repeated Russia’s position that it would not give up territory it has captured in Ukraine’s east and south.
Moscow has also said it would not accept Ukrainian admission to NATO.
Europe has been left scrambling to respond as Mr Trump and his team have not only questioned support for Ukraine, but also decades of transatlantic security co-operation between the United States and its key European allies.
Ukrainian soldiers in the east told AFP they were nervous about Mr Trump’s bid for a swift ceasefire.
“It scares me more. Because the bloodiest moments always come before a truce,” said Andrii, a 25-year-old serving with Ukraine’s army in the east.
“In this war, you don’t count days, weeks, numbers, or any dates,” said Mykola, a 38 year-old gun commander stationed in the eastern Donetsk region.
“I don’t want to give up Ukrainian lands … we’ve been fighting for so long,” he told AFP on the eve of the anniversary. “But everyone is tired of the war.”
UK REVEALS 100 SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIAN ALLIES
The UK government has unveiled over 100 sanctions against those aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on the third anniversary of the start of the conflict.
The package of sanctions measures, described as the largest since the early days of the invasion, would target “Russia’s military machine, entities in third countries who support it and the fragile supply networks that it relies on”, a foreign ministry statement said.
EXPLOSIVES THROWN AT RUSSIAN CONSULATE
Three improvised explosive devices were thrown at the Russian consulate in the southern French port city of Marseilles on Monday but no one was injured, a police source said.
Only two of the three devices detonated in the attack on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the source said.
The consulate was sealed off by police.
AFP journalists at the scene later heard a detonation caused by a bomb disposal robot.
The Russian foreign ministry denounced what it called a “terrorist attack”.
“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseilles have all the signs of a terrorist attack,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian reporters.
“We demand that the host country undertake exhaustive and speedy investigative measures, as well as steps to strengthen the security of Russia’s foreign missions,” said Zakharova.
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Originally published as Donald Trump says Ukraine war could end ‘within weeks’, Vladimir Putin ‘will accept’ peacekeepers
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