Trump pushes for peace deal after talks with Zelenskyy, urges Putin to ‘stop shooting’ in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he wants Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting” in Ukraine and sign a peace treaty, one day after meeting Ukraine’s president at the Vatican.

Trump, who claimed before his inauguration that he could stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in one day, has begun a diplomatic drive since taking office to put an end to the war.

These attempts have so far yielded no results.

“Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said in response to a question on what he wanted from Putin.

After attending Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome on Saturday, Trump spoke on the tarmac at Morristown Airport before boarding Air Force One destined for Washington.

“We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it,” Trump added, likely referring to a US-proposed peace plan for the more-than-three-year-long conflict in Ukraine.

Trump had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the funeral, where the two leaders spoke face-to-face for the first time since a disastrous televised meeting in the White House in February.

After their brief talk in St Peter’s Basilica, Trump cast doubt over whether Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.

Trump also said on Sunday that he thought Zelensky was ready to give up Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula captured by Russia in 2014, as part of efforts to agree on a peace deal.

“Oh, I think so,” said Trump in response to a question on whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” the territory.

Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, claimed to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of the war-battered country despite not having full military control over them.