Trump and
Putin expected to speak this week about ceasefire terms, envoy says
Steve
Witkoff says US discussions with Russian president ‘positive’ and
‘solution-based’ and leaders likely to speak
Edward
Helmore in New York and Shaun Walker in Kyiv
Sun 16 Mar
2025 16.35 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/trump-putin-speak-ukraine-russia-ceasefire
Donald
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expected the US president to
speak with Vladimir Putin this week, saying that the Russian president “accepts
the philosophy” of Trump’s ceasefire and peace terms.
Witkoff told
CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week were “positive”
and “solution-based”. He declined to confirm when asked whether Putin’s demands
included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk; international recognition
of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian; limits on Ukraine’s ability
to mobilize; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign peacekeepers.
Putin said
on Thursday that he supported a truce but outlined numerous details that need
to be negotiated before the deal can be completed. The Russian president said
he was open to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US but offered vague terms
for his support, raising questions about what the Kremlin wants.
Witkoff
declined to describe Russian terms. He said US envoys “had narrowed the
differences” between Ukraine and Russian negotiators, and he would meet Trump
on Sunday to discuss “how to narrow the differences even further”.
The
discussions, Witkoff added, included Ukraine, Russia and European stakeholder
countries including France, Britain, Norway and Finland, as well as other
elements “that would be encompassed in a ceasefire”.
Trump, he
said, was being updated about the discussions as they happened. “He is involved
with every important decision here and I expect that there will be a call
between the [US and Russian] presidents this week.”
Witkoff also
said the US was continuing to engage and have conversations with Ukraine, and
“advising them on everything we’re thinking about”.
Ukraine
agreed to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire at talks last week in Saudi
Arabia, and since his disastrous meeting in the White House a fortnight ago,
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been trying hard to portray Kyiv
as amenable to Trump’s plans, while suggesting Putin is merely playing for time
and not serious about negotiating a deal.
Zelenskyy
has agreed to put discussions of territorial questions and of possible security
guarantees on hold until after a ceasefire takes effect and more detailed
discussions are held. Previously, he had insisted that a ceasefire would only
make sense if western partners would provide Ukraine with some kind of security
guarantee.
Trump has
made it clear that no US guarantees are on the table, while the British prime
minister, Keir Starmer, has been attempting to rally a coalition of other
western allies to put together a possible peacekeeping contingent that could be
deployed to Ukraine after a deal. However, it is not clear that such a mission
could function without US backing, and Russian officials have repeatedly ruled
out accepting any deal involving western boots on the ground in Ukraine.
On Sunday,
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 1,000 drones and 1,300 guided air
bombs on Ukrainian territory over the past week. “This is not what someone who
wants a quick end to the war does, so we have to jointly pressure Russia to
force it to stop its aggression,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Ukraine also
launched a fresh wave of drone attacks against Russian territory over the
weekend.
Witkoff said
teams of US negotiators would meet with both Russian and Ukrainian officials
this week. “As the president said, he really expects there to be some sort of
deal in the coming weeks, and I believe that’s the case,” he said.
There have
been concerns that the settlement being pushed for by the Trump administration
would look a lot like an outright Russian victory, at the expense of Ukraine
and its allies in Europe.
Trump and
Putin last week set off further alarm bells in Kyiv by exchanging friendly
words, as the new US administration cosies up to Moscow while attacking Ukraine
with threatening language and the withdrawal of some military support.
Separately,
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told ABC’s This Week that
back-and-forth diplomacy was ongoing. Waltz said there would be “some type of
territory for future security guarantees, the future status of Ukraine”, and he
called permanent Nato membership for Ukraine “incredibly unlikely”.
Waltz asked
if it was plausible to believe that “we are going to drive every Russian off of
every inch of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea?”
He said: “We
can talk about what’s right and wrong. And we also have to talk about the
reality of the situation on the ground. And that’s what we are doing through
diplomacy, through shuttle diplomacy, through proximity talks.”
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