President Donald Trump continued to press Kyiv to sign a minerals deal Thursday and expressed confidence that Moscow was also ready to close on a deal to end the war that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Trump sent a message to NATO members: “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”
He laid out his vision for how he would broker peace between the neighboring countries.
“I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don’t think they have a choice,” he said. “I also think that Russia wants to make a deal, because in a certain, different way, a different way that only I know, only I know, they have no choice either.”
And he said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia “probably over the next month and a half.”
Envoy will coordinate talks
Earlier in the day, Trump’s special Middle East envoy said he would travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with Ukrainian representatives for talks about a ceasefire to pause Russia’s invasion.
“We’re now in discussions to coordinate a meeting with the Ukrainians in Riyadh, or even potentially Jeddah,” said Steve Witkoff. “The idea is to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well.”
Witkoff said Trump felt Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made amends after the confrontation between the two leaders in the White House last Friday.
“He felt that Zelenskyy’s letter [calling the blowout ‘regrettable’] was a very positive first step. There was an apology. There was an acknowledgement that the United States has done so much for the country of Ukraine and a sense of gratitude,” Witkoff said.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, was in Brussels with European leaders for emergency talks.
“We will arm ourselves faster, smarter, and more efficiently than Russia,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen advanced a plan to loosen budget rules so that willing countries can spend much more on defense, alongside commitments to encourage the 27 member countries to invest about $863 billion in defense over the next four years.
“We are very thankful that we are not alone, and these are not just words,” Zelenskyy said. “We feel it. It’s very important.”
Macron predicts ‘decisive steps’
French President Emmanuel Macron said ahead of the talks that EU members would “take decisive steps forward,” while expressing concerns about shifts in U.S. support for Ukraine under the new Trump administration.
“The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow,” Macron said.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday that France is sharing intelligence with Ukraine, a move that followed the United States saying it was cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday the United States had, for the moment, ended sharing its intelligence with Kyiv, although that could be short-lived after Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready for peace talks with Russia.
Trump earlier in the week ordered the U.S. to suspend military aid to Kyiv’s fighters after his meeting last week with Zelenskyy.
Since the start of the war in 2022, the United States has provided Ukraine with significant intelligence, including critical information its military needs for targeting Russian forces.
Reaching a peace deal could prove difficult. Ukraine has long demanded a restoration of its internationally recognized 2014 borders before Moscow unilaterally seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Overall, Russia now holds about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including much of eastern Ukraine, and has vowed to not return any of it to the Kyiv government.
(Text courtesy: Voice Of America/IBNS)
