Trump warns Putin: “I have a deadline”. Appeal for peace and tension with Zelensky

The US president criticises Moscow for the attack on Kiev and relaunches peace talks. But on Crimea he opens to concessions, irritating Ukraine

Donald Trump returns to talk about the war in Ukraine in harsh but not unambiguous tones. Just hours before leaving for Rome, where he will attend the funeral of Pope Francis, the US president makes a new appeal to Vladimir Putin and sets an implicit deadline in the peace talks.

“I am not happy. Missiles while we talk peace,” he said in the Oval Office, referring to the Russian attack that struck Kiev leaving at least 10 dead and 90 wounded. Earlier, on Truth, Trump had written: ‘Vladimir, stop! Five thousand soldiers a week are dying, let’s close this peace deal.”

The words become sharper in his confrontation with journalists: ‘Crimea was lost 11 years ago under Obama, without even a fight. Now they say “give it back to us”? I see it hard…,” he said, implicitly referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who continues to claim the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

Comments from the Kremlin were not long in coming. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that “Trump’s words are consistent with what we have been saying for a long time”. The US president also acknowledged “major concessions” already made by Putin: ‘He gave up taking the whole country. That’s a big concession. And he offered to stop the war’.

However, Trump does not ignore the bombing of Kiev: ‘We are engaged in peace talks and missiles have been fired. I don’t like that it takes so long. I have my deadline: we will adopt a totally different attitude afterwards’.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for Russia, is expected in Moscow in the coming days. “We have made a lot of progress, there are ongoing meetings. The parties want an agreement, we’ll get there,“ the president said, but left the door open to new sanctions: ‘I’d like to answer that question in a week”.

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(Photo: © AndKronos)