President Donald Trump vowed to get a ‘completed and signed’ ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine, warning ‘millions’ will die if the fighting doesn’t end.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held a late night meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday after the Russian president showed resistance to a ceasefire.
Witkoff ‘presented additional information to the Russian side’ and Putin ‘passed along information and additional signals for President Trump,’ in that meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.
Trump made his stance clear. He called the situation a ‘real’ mess but vowed to ‘get us out.’
‘Millions of people are needlessly dead, never to be seen again…and there will be many more to follow if we don’t get the Cease Fire and Final Agreement with Russia completed and signed,’ the president wrote on his Truth Social account on Friday morning.
In a second post he revealed that the U.S. had a ‘very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.’
He also noted Russian gains in ground and attacks on Ukrainian troops, adding: ‘I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!’
President Donald Trump is pushing for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia
Ukraine said it would adhere to a ceasefire – but only if Russia does the same. And Peskov said there was ‘certainly’ reason to feel ‘cautious optimism’ about the prospect.
Russia also indicated it wanted direct talks between Trump and Putin.
The Kremlin spokesman said Russia and the U.S. would work out the timing of a phone call between the two leaders once Witkoff had briefed Trump.
‘After Mr. Witkoff passes along all of the information he received in Moscow to his head of state — we’ll determine the timing of the conversation after that,’ Peskov said. ‘There’s an understanding on both sides that such a conversation is necessary.’
Trump, on Thursday, indicated he was willing to speak to Putin.
‘I’d love to meet with him and talk to him,’ he said.
It’s estimated around 500,000 people have died in the three year war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin’s response ‘highly predictable’ and ‘manipulative words’ aimed at dragging out the process by setting unworkable conditions.
Putin raised eyebrows on Thursday when he signaled hesitation about a deal as his troops continue to march across Ukraine, taking more territory.
He told reporters in Russia he was in ‘favor’ of a 30-day ceasefire ‘but that there are nuances’ and that he had ‘serious questions’ about how it would work.
‘I think we need to talk to our American colleagues… Maybe have a phone call with President Trump and discuss this with him,’ he said.
He noted the need to develop a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce. Another issue, he said, is whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue mobilization and rearmament.
‘We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis,’ Putin said.
Ukrainian drones stuck ten regions in Russia, including Moscow, hitting an oil refinery in the Oryol region and targeting the nuclear town of Kurchatov
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff (right) held a late night meeting in Moscow
Trump has indicated he’ll hit Russia with sanctions if they don’t agree to a deal.
Putin, meanwhile, wants a wide-range of concessions from Ukraine and its western allies.
He wants Ukraine to drop its desire to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited, Western sanctions eased on the Kremlin, and a presidential election to be held in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is premature while martial law remains in force.
Trump is pushing to end the war as soon as possible, issuing dire warnings of a World War III while Putin appears to be in no rush.