Trump speaks of “deal with Russia”, but still has to convince Selenskyj

US President Donald Trump indicated a possible agreement in the Ukraine War on Wednesday. Russia is ready for an agreement, Trump said to journalists in the White House. “And I think we have an agreement with Russia.”

He said to Ukraine, referring to President Wolodymyr Selenskyj: “We have to reach an agreement with Selenskyj.” This is more difficult than he expected first. “But I think we have an agreement with both.” Details were initially not known, statements from Kiev and Moscow were not immediately available on Thursday night.

Trump’s explanation initially seemed to contradict the latest statements of high-ranking US government agents. A few hours earlier, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt had said that Trump was frustrated in view of how slowly negotiations will be made. She also said Selenskyj seems to “move in the wrong direction”.

At a Ukraine meeting in London, diplomats spoke of several obstacles, including the status of the Crimea. Ukraine rejected the idea that the Russian annexation of the peninsula could be recognized. Trump said a question about the Crimea on Wednesday and explained that he had “no favorites” in the Ukraine conflict and only wanted the war to stop.

On the same day, Trump had accused Selenskyj of unnecessarily extending the war with Russia. Selenskyj’s refusal to accept the occupation of Crimea by the Russians was “very harmful to the peace negotiations,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social, after the US government had already increased the pressure on both sides.

Trump wrote that the statements that made it difficult to enclose this war were difficult. Selenskyj had previously categorically excluded territory to Russia. “There is nothing to talk about. That is outside of our constitution,” said the head of state in Kiev with a view to the Ukrainian areas annexed by Russia such as the Black Sea Peninsula Crimea.

On Friday, Trump had threatened to withdraw from the Ukraine negotiations with the withdrawal of the United States if Kiev or Moscow should have the conversations “very difficult”. On Sunday, he then expressed hope for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine this week, without making any further information on possible progress in the negotiations.

Trump has been pushing for a quick end to the Ukraine War for months and calls for a quick ceasefire. In the election campaign, he initially claimed that he could end the Ukraine war within 24 hours. Later he named six months as a period of time.

After a phone call to Putin on February 12, Trump had agreed an “immediate” start of talks. Negotiations with representatives of Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia at the end of March did not make a breakthrough. Putin rejected a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire presented by the USA and Ukraine.

In the course of his efforts to end the war, Washington increased the pressure on Kiev to do without the return of some areas occupied by Russia. The refusal of the Ukrainian President Selenskyj to cede the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia was “very harmful to the peace negotiations” with Moscow, Trump wrote on Wednesday in his online service Truth Social. US Vice President JD Vance put up with freezing the current border lines in the Ukraine War.