Donald Trump ‘thinks’ Ukraine's Zelensky ready to give up Crimea to Russia
Donald Trump earlier also advised Vladimir Putin that Russia should “stop shooting” and sign the deal to end the Ukraine war.
US President Donald Trump said he "thinks" that his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, was ready to give up Crimea to Russia as part of a ceasefire agreement, with America saying that talks on the Ukraine war entered a "critical week" on Monday.
Trump also increased the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling him that he should "stop shooting" and finalise an agreement to end the long war that began with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
When reporters in New Jersey asked the US President as to whether he thought Zelensky was ready to "give up" Crimea, Trump said, "Oh, I think so."
Trump's comment comes just a day after he met with Zelensky at the Vatican, where both leaders were present to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. The US President said that during their talks in the Vatican, they "briefly" discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
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Time and again, Trump has reiterated that he can bring an end to the Ukraine war, something that he has boasted about before his presidential inauguration in January as well.
Trump 'wants' Putin to sign the deal
Earlier on Sunday, the US President said that he wanted Putin "to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal". He believed that "we have the confines of a deal, and I want him to sign it".
The White House had also said that it could walk away from its role as mediator if there was no rapid progress in the talks, with Trump indicating that he would give the process "two weeks".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also pressed that the deal was "close".
Speaking to broadcaster NBC on Sunday, Rubio said, "We're close, but we're not close enough" to a deal that could bring a halt to the fighting. However, he said that this week is "going to be a very critical week".
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Rubio also spoke to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday. A statement from the ministry said that the duo "emphasised the importance of consolidating the emerging prerequisites for starting negotiations in order to agree on a reliable path to long-term sustainable peace".
Even with America's frustration with both sides, the war continues to drag on. Kyiv on Sunday also launched a "massive" drone attack on Russia's Bryansk region, killing one civilian and injuring another.
Meanwhile, Russia has claimed to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of Ukraine since the 2022 invasion. It holds around 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.
(with AFP inputs)
