US President Donald Trump is determined to negotiate an end the Russia-Ukraine, the White House says
US President Donald Trump is determined to negotiate an end the Russia-Ukraine, the White House says
A peace deal to end the Ukraine conflict has “never been closer,” the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday ahead of phone talks between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
A peace deal to end the Ukraine conflict has “never been closer,” the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Monday ahead of the upcoming phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking during a regular media briefing, Leavitt invoked an American football comparison, describing the potential peace deal as a goal nearly met.
Speaking to reporters, Leavitt compared the negotiations to American football. “We are on the 10th yard line of peace, and we’ve never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done,” she said.
“We are on the 10th yard line of peace, and we’ve never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done,” she said.
Trump said earlier that he would discuss the control of territories and “dividing up certain assets” with Putin on Tuesday. The leaders are also expected to discuss the 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US.
Trump is expected to reveal the details of the phone call shortly after the negotiations, scheduled for Tuesday, either in person or through one of his spokespeople, Leavitt added.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin in Moscow last week, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “the two sides today are a lot closer” to reaching an agreement. The US had “narrowed the differences” between Moscow and Kiev, he argued.
The phone call was first announced by Trump on Sunday in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One. The US president said the negotiations will likely focus on the territorial realities in Ukraine and Kiev’s claims to now-Russian territories, as well as power plants endangered by the hostilities.
Ukraine has backed a temporary ceasefire but ruled out renouncing its claims on Russian land, including Crimea. Putin said last week that he supports the ceasefire proposal in principle but stressed that it must address the “original causes of the crisis” and not be used by Kiev to regroup its forces.
Moscow confirmed the negotiations set to take place yet abstained from detailing any of the topics to be discussed by the two presidents.
“We never do that; we never jump the gun. Preparations for the conversation are ongoing, but as we see it, discussions between two heads of state should not be preemptively disclosed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Tuesday.
Earlier, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said the upcoming phone talks will likely revolve around the US-proposed truce in Ukraine. The official was hosted by Putin in Moscow last week and presented the Russian president with the details on the potential 30-day ceasefire. Kiev agreed to the idea during talks with the US in Saudi Arabia early last week.
While neither Moscow nor Washington disclosed the details of the latest meeting, Witkoff described it as positive. Putin said that he welcomed the truce idea in principle but stressed that multiple outstanding issues had to be ironed out before he could endorse it.
