Trump Says Putin Wants to End War
President Donald Trump maintained that Vladimir Putin appeared open to stopping the fighting in Ukraine, even though marathon discussions in Moscow failed to produce a concrete agreement and U.S. officials now prepared for follow-up talks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator.
Trump had dispatched envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to the Kremlin, where the pair met with Putin late into the night. Despite the lengthy session, the delegation did not secure a breakthrough to halt what has become Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II.
After the meeting, the Kremlin announced that several elements of Washington’s proposal were deemed unacceptable. The U.S. plan, as described, included Ukraine surrendering portions of the eastern Donbas region—territory Kyiv continued to hold nearly four years after Russia’s invasion.
Reflecting on the discussions, Trump said, “I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin,” and added that the talks were “very good.”
Still, Trump cautioned that no outcome was guaranteed, noting that diplomacy requires cooperation from both sides. He said it remained too early to predict the next steps “because it does take two to tango.”
When asked whether Witkoff and Kushner sensed that Putin truly wished to wind down the nearly four-year-old war, Trump said their takeaway was clear: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”
{Matzav.com}
