Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Thursday night that Russian President Vladimir Putin would likely delay any ceasefire agreement because he is not genuinely interested in peace. This comes as President Donald Trump expressed optimism about the ongoing negotiations.
In his evening address to the Ukrainian people, Zelenskyy said that Putin’s reaction to the ceasefire proposal was “very predictable,” according to a report by The New York Times on Friday. He further explained that Putin had set so many conditions that it seemed “nothing will work out at all, or that it will not work out for as long as possible.”
Zelenskyy also accused Putin of feigning a willingness to agree to the ceasefire, only to prepare to reject it. “Putin does this often — he doesn’t say ‘no’ outright, but he drags things out and makes reasonable solutions impossible,” Zelenskyy said, as quoted by The Guardian.
On the other hand, President Trump remained hopeful about the prospects of a ceasefire. He mentioned that there were “good signals” indicating that a 30-day ceasefire agreement might be reached, with U.S. officials planning to meet with Putin in Moscow. “It doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is, but they have very serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others, and hopefully, they all want to end this nightmare,” Trump stated during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Thursday, according to The New York Times.
“It’s a nightmare,” Trump added. “It’s a horrible thing.” His comments came amid ongoing meetings in Russia conducted by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump also mentioned that he hoped to speak with Putin soon and highlighted that discussions were underway regarding possible territorial concessions as part of a final agreement. “A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed,” Trump said.
In the meantime, Trump’s meeting with Rutte appeared cordial, despite Trump’s frequent criticisms of NATO. Trump praised Rutte for his leadership, saying he was doing a “fantastic job” and credited him for pushing countries to contribute more to military spending.
“I really want to work together with you in the run-up to The Hague summit to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership, and we are getting there,” Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, remarked.
Rutte appeared to avoid direct confrontation with Trump during their meeting, including when Trump raised the topic of annexing Greenland, a territory controlled by Denmark, another NATO member. Trump suggested that Rutte “could be instrumental” in the plans, stating, “We have to do it. We really need it for national security.”
Rutte, however, responded diplomatically, expressing his desire not to “drag NATO into that” issue and instead redirected the conversation to agree with Trump on the growing threats posed by Russia and China in the Arctic.
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