(COMBO) This mixture of images created on February 25, 2025 reveals US President Donald Trump (L) on February 22, 2025, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 12, 2025.. Ukraine has agreed on the phrases of a minerals deal with the United States and will signal it February 28, 2025, the 2 international locations stated, a transfer Kyiv hopes will lead to future safety ensures from Washington.
Alex Wroblewskitetiana Dzhafarova | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump stated Sunday the onus to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv is on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that Zelenskyy may “end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
“Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE,” Trump added within the put up, mirroring calls for by the Kremlin for recognition of its annexation of Crimea and for Ukraine to be excluded from the NATO alliance.
Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and backed separatists in jap Ukraine, a transfer that was broadly condemned by the worldwide group. Moscow then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump’s feedback come forward of an Aug. 18 assembly in Washington with Zelenskyy and various European leaders.
The gathering follows Trump’s Aug. 15 talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which lasted three hours however didn’t yield a ceasefire settlement, although the U.S. President described the talks as “productive.”
Trump reportedly told Zelenskyy after the assembly with Putin that Moscow had provided to freeze many of the entrance traces in Ukraine in change for Kyiv withdrawing from the jap areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Zelenskyy had rejected the proposal ahead of the summit, saying this is able to deprive Ukraine of key defensive positions and permit Moscow to launch additional offensives into Ukraine. Kyiv at the moment holds about one quarter of Donetsk, together with its so-called “fortress belt” of cities.
In a Fox News interview after the assembly with Putin, Trump urged Zelenskyy to strike a deal to end the war in Ukraine. “Look, Russia is a very big power, and [Ukraine is] not. They’re great soldiers,” he stated.
In 2024, then-U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stated to the United Nations: “If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.”