US President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting” in Ukraine and agree to a peace deal, a day after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican.
Trump, who had claimed before his inauguration that he could end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within a day, has pushed a diplomatic effort since taking office to stop the fighting — though without success so far.
Speaking at Morristown airport before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, Trump said, “I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal.” He added, “We have the outlines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it,” apparently referring to a US-backed peace proposal aimed at resolving the more-than-three-year conflict.
Trump had briefly met Zelensky at Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome, marking their first face-to-face encounter since a troubled televised meeting months earlier. After their conversation at St Peter’s Basilica, Trump questioned whether Putin truly sought an end to the war, which has devastated eastern Ukraine and caused tens of thousands of deaths.
Trump also suggested Zelensky might be willing to cede Crimea — the Black Sea peninsula Russia seized in 2014 — in order to reach a peace agreement. When asked if he believed Zelensky was prepared to “give up” the territory, Trump replied, “Oh, I think so.”
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has claimed to have annexed four eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, despite lacking full military control over them.
