 "Russia-Ukraine war: Trump says Kyiv to be 'part of' talks to end war")
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Kyiv will be “part of” negotiations on ending Russia’s brutal three-year-old war in Ukraine.
Trump spoke a day after he announced plans to begin peace talks, following separate telephone calls Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump said he is convinced the Russian leader “wants peace” adding “I think he would tell me if he didn’t.”
Earlier today, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not accept any bilateral agreement on its fate reached by Moscow and Washington without Kyiv’s involvement, and called for Europe to have a seat at the table in negotiations to end the war.
Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered permanently neutral under any peace deal.
Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, said on Wednesday they had to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace. They said they were ready to enhance support for Ukraine and put it in a position of strength.
Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, amid Kyiv’s bid to join NATO, which he described as a “red line” for Moscow. He had cast the alliance’s eastward expansion as a major threat to Russia and sought NATO’s guarantees that it would never offer membership to Ukraine.
Impact Shorts
View AllPutin expected a quick victory, but the steadfast Ukrainian resistance and a flow of Western weapons to Kyiv quickly thwarted Kremlin hopes. The fighting has produced heavy casualties on both sides, becoming Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II.
After suffering early setbacks, Russia gradually regained the initiative in combat, unleashing a series of offensives across the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in slow but steady gains throughout 2024. It controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, taken in 2014
Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia has seized but never fully controlled, renounce its bid to join NATO, and protect the rights of Russian speakers. He and his lieutenants repeated all of that in recent statements, reaffirming Moscow’s maximalist approach.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected Moscow’s demands, but the grim battlefield situation and the latest statements from Trump set the stage for talks in which Kyiv could potentially be forced into painful compromises.
He said he later spoke to Zelenskyy, but he remained noncommittal about whether Ukraine would be an equal participant in the peace talks — an apparent signal that Kyiv could be presented with a deal negotiated behind its back in a dramatic shift from the Biden administration’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
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