US President Donald Trump said the White House had received some “pretty good news” on the 30-day ceasefire proposal between Ukraine and Russia. The speech held on Friday night followed talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, when Kyiv agreed to a temporary ceasefire plan. Washington is now attempting to persuade Moscow to accept the deal.
Trump said: “We’ve had some very good calls today with Russia and with Ukraine. They’ve agreed to a ceasefire if we can get it with Russia, and it’s not easy. It’s a tough one. But I think we’re doing it. … I think we’ve had some very good results. I haven’t been able to say that to anybody else, I haven’t wanted to say it until just before I came here, I got some pretty good news.”
Trump didn’t elaborate on what the good news was and admitted there was still a “long way to go”.
This comes as Ukraine reportedly set two “red lines” for any ceasefire deal during the country’s delegates’ meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A source close to the meeting claimed to the European Pravda that the Kyiv administration would not bow to restrictions on which institutions it could join, including NATO, nor accept limits to the size of its military.
Vladimir Putin has since said he agrees with the idea of a ceasefire – but added “questions” remain about the nature of a truce. It is feared the Russian despot will set out a number of conditions for peace unacceptable for Ukraine.
Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s first prime minister and now an opponent of the Russian president, said Moscow was only interested in a conditional ceasefire. Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “He rejected this proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, he wants conditional, he wants a ceasefire on his terms.”
On the same night of Trump’s update on the ceasefire talks, Russian troops attacked Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, injuring at least 12 people, including two children.
Last week, as Russia intensified attacks on Ukraine, a strike on a hotel in Kryvyi Rih killed six people.
In the meantime, diplomats from G7 countries reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine, and Germany’s Prime Minister, Friedrich Merz, announced an allocation of €3 billion in new military aid to the country.