<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the “possibility” of direct talks with Ukraine in a meeting with a US envoy, the Kremlin said, while President Donald Trump claimed the warring parties were “very close to a deal”.<\/p>\n
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again rejected suggestions that Ukraine give up Crimea, and the talks between Putin and US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff came just after a top Russian general was killed in a car bomb attack outside Moscow.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Arriving in Rome late Friday to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump said it had been “a good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n
“Most of the major points are agreed to,” he said.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has threatened to walk away from peace efforts if he does not see progress towards a ceasefire, gave no other details.<\/p>\n
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov however said Witkoff and Putin had a “constructive” conversation, including “a discussion on the possibility of renewing direct negotiations” between Kyiv and Moscow.<\/p>\n
Ushakov said the meeting had brought the US and Russian positions on Ukraine “closer together”.<\/p>\n
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks on the conflict that has left tens of thousand dead since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
– Crimea claims –<\/strong><\/p>\n Lower-level officials have however cooperated on prisoner exchanges, the return of killed soldiers’ remains and the Black Sea grain export deal that Moscow later scrapped.<\/p>\n Trump said while campaigning for the US presidency that he would end the conflict within a day of taking office. He has however since clashed with Zelensky and expressed frustration over Putin’s actions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Putin last month rebuffed a US proposal for an unconditional ceasefire that Zelensky both accepted and has repeatedly called for since.<\/p>\n On Thursday, after Russia launched its deadliest strike on Kyiv in months, Trump wrote on social media: “Vladimir, STOP!”, adding “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When asked how he would respond if Russia did not accept a deal, Trump said: “I won’t be happy, let me put it that way. Things will happen.”<\/p>\n Ukraine and its European allies are wary of any deal that could be struck between Moscow and Washington.<\/p>\n Witkoff, a billionaire tycoon and one of the US president’s most trusted aides, is playing a key role in Washington’s peace efforts, though he has made several comments that have infuriated Ukraine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Witkoff visited Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US broadcaster CBS that Moscow was “ready to reach a deal”, but that unnamed details needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n – General killed –<\/strong><\/p>\n The United States has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for peace.<\/p>\n Trump was quoted as saying in a TIME magazine interview released Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that.”<\/p>\n With Ukraine fearful Trump could force it to cede Crimea — a strategic Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in 2014 — Zelensky insisted the territory is “the property of the Ukrainian people”.<\/p>\n “Our position is unchanged,” he told reporters in Kyiv. “The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories… belong to Ukraine.”<\/p>\n Zelensky has however conceded that Ukraine might have to try to return of some land captured by Russia through diplomacy once a ceasefire is in place.<\/p>\n “I agree with President Trump that Ukraine does not have enough weapons to regain control of the Crimean peninsula with weapons,” he said Friday.<\/p>\n Zelensky cited the Russian strike on Kyiv strike, which left at least 12 dead, as one of the reasons he might miss Pope Francis’s funeral Saturday.<\/p>\n He could potentially have met Trump for the first time since their explosive White House confrontation in February.<\/p>\n Just before Witkoff met Putin, Russia reported that General Yaroslav Moskalik, one of the deputy heads of the general staff, was killed by a bomb in a parked car just outside Moscow.<\/p>\n “There are reasons to believe that Ukraine’s special services were involved in the murder,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. Ukraine did not immediately comment.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n Washington: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the “possibility” of direct talks with Ukraine in a meeting with a US envoy, the Kremlin said, while President Donald Trump claimed the warring parties were “very close to a deal”. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again rejected suggestions that Ukraine give up Crimea, and the talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3934\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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