Key points
- Trump claims peace could be achieved within two weeks
- Trump, Zelensky held a meeting before Pope Francis’ funeral
- US is frustrated with both sides
ISLAMABAD: United States President Donald Trump on Sunday said he thought Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky was ready to give up Crimea, in direct contradiction to the Ukrainian leader’s statements on the peninsula annexed by Russia.
“Oh, I think so,” said Trump, according to AFP, in response to a question on whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” the territory.
Trump also urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal” to end the fighting, suggesting this could be achieved within two weeks.
Trump and Zelensky held a brief meeting before Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican. President Trump made the comments to reporters after returning from the Vatican.
“Gone well”
Trump said that the meeting had “gone well” and that Crimea had been discussed “very briefly”.
He also said that Zelensky now seemed “calmer”, in what could have been a reference to a very public clash between the two presidents at the White House in February.
The 78-year-old US president, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, launched a diplomatic offensive to stop the fighting after taking office in January.
According to BBC, Ukraine has repeatedly rejected making any territorial concessions, stressing that issues about land should only be discussed once a ceasefire is agreed.
Kyiv and western allies have feared that Trump was pivoting towards Moscow’s position.
But the US leader has appeared increasingly impatient with Putin in recent days.
Russia launched drone and missile attacks the night after the Vatican talks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.
“Stop shooting”
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said Sunday when asked what he wanted from Putin. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it.”
The White House has said that without rapid progress, it could walk away from its role as a broker. Trump indicated that he would give the process “two weeks.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier Sunday stressed the importance of the week ahead.
“We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC. “I think this is going to be a very critical week.”
But there is still US frustration with both sides, as the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people, drags on.
