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Donald Trump expressed the increasing disappointment with Russia over her constant attacks on Ukraine, but claimed that a deal to end the war remained within possible.
The US president on Sunday evening reiterated his criticism of Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s constant attacks in Ukraine, as Washington grows impatient among annoying efforts to mediate a peace deal.
“I was very disappointed that the missiles were flying (started) from Russia,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to the White House. “I want (Putin) to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal.”
The comments come while Washington appears to be the pressure on both sides to agree with the ceasefire, and a day after Trump met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Pope Francis’ funeral margins in Rome.
Trump said the meeting – the first since the outbreak of the February Oval Office – had been a “beautiful meeting” and praised Zelenskyy for “doing a good job”, adding: “I see it as quieter. I think he understands the photo, and I think he wants to make a deal.”
Russia began its deadly strike in Kyiv last week, killing 12 civilians and injuring 90 others. After the Trump attack, he took on his social platform of truth to offer a rare rebuke of his Russian counterpart. “Vladimir, stop!” He wrote, calling the attack “unnecessary”.
In an interview broadcast on American television on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Russia would not withdraw in its attacks.
“We will continue to aim for the places used by the Ukraine army, by some mercenaries from foreign countries and from instructors that Europeans officially sent to assist in the target of Russian civilian countries,” Lavrov CBS The Nation Show told a pre-registered interview.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that constant Russian strikes – including almost 70 from noon – clarified that “more tangible pressure on Russia is needed to create more opportunities for real diplomacy”.
He wrote on X: “The situation in the front line and the real activity of the Russian army prove that the current global pressure on Russia is insufficient to bring this war.”
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin last week for what the Kremlin described as a “constructive” meeting.
But senior administration officials showed that Washington is growing more and more unbearable and was ready to leave peace talks if an agreement was not reached quickly.
“It has to happen soon,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the NBC press on Sunday. “We cannot continue to devote time and resources this effort if it is not realized.”
He said that this week the US will be likely to make an “determination if this is an attempt in which we want to continue to get involved in or whether it is time to focus on some other issues.”
