Earlier, President Trump said he is hopeful that Russia will agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine even as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday termed it as a positive step and said it is up to the US to convince Russia to accept it.
In a significant development, US President Donald Trump said that negotiators have headed to Russia for talks on a possible ceasefire with Ukraine, days after Zelenskyy agreed to a 30-day truce. However, the US President did not give further details on the negotiating team.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister that hopefully he can get a ceasefire deal from Russia.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was present in the meeting, added that there were “conversations that are happening on the phone and in person with some of our representatives over the next couple of days.”
Earlier, President Trump said he is hopeful that Russia will agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine even as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday termed it as a positive step and said it is up to the US to convince Russia to accept it.
Senior officials from the US and Ukraine held talks in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday focussing on ending the over three year war between Moscow and Kyiv, which gave an indication to accept a 30-day ceasefire.
“A while ago, Ukraine has agreed to the ceasefire. Now we go to Russia and hopefully President Putin will agree to it also,” Trump said here soon after the Jeddah announcement.
“If we get Russia to do it, that will be great. If we can’t, we keep going on and on and people are going to get killed,” he said in another video posted on his TruthSocial account.
He also spoke about meetings with Russia soon, in an apparent reference to Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, who is likely to visit Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Zelenskyy said the American side understands his country’s arguments and considers their proposals and added that he is “grateful to President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams.”
“Ukraine is ready to accept this proposal—we see it as a positive step and are ready to take it. Now, it is up to the United States to convince Russia to do the same.
If Russia agrees, the ceasefire will take effect immediately,” Zelenskyy said hours after the announcement came from Jeddah.
“During today’s talks, the US side proposed taking an even bigger first step—a 30-day full interim ceasefire, not only stopping missile, drone, and bomb attacks, not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line,” the Ukrainian president said in a video, text for which was posted on his official X handle too.
