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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he supported President Donald Trump’s proposal to freeze the current front lines of the war while both sides work toward a longer-term peace agreement.
Trump “proposed, ‘Stay where we stay and begin conversation,’” Zelenskyy told reporters during a brief visit to Oslo, Norway. “I think that was a good compromise, but I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the president.”
The U.S. president told reporters earlier this week: “They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line.”
But Moscow has already rejected the idea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday dismissed any plan to halt the conflict in place, insisting that Russia sought only a “long-term, sustainable peace.”
‘NO PLANS’ FOR TRUMP-PUTIN MEETING ‘IN THE NEAR FUTURE,’ SENIOR OFFICIAL SAYS
“Washington now starts to say that we must stop [the conflict] immediately, that we should no longer discuss anything, that we should stop and let history judge,” Lavrov said. “You see, simply stopping would mean forgetting the root causes of this conflict.”
Russia continues to demand full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region, of which it already occupies roughly 90% as of August.
Trump met with Zelenskyy last week at the White House, where he seemingly denied Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk long-range missiles. The meeting came ahead of an attempted diplomatic opening between Washington and Moscow that quickly fell apart.
TRUMP THREATENS TO ‘SPEAK’ WITH PUTIN ON GIVING UKRAINE TOMAHAWK MISSILES AS RUSSIA HITS HOSPITAL
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lavrov this week in what was intended to prepare the ground for a potential Trump–Putin meeting in Budapest, Hungary. But following the call, the White House said there was “no need to meet” as the two sides “remained far apart.”
Trump told reporters he did not want to “waste time” meeting with the Russian leader, apparently wary of repeating the failed Alaska summit in August, when both men walked out after Putin refused to make any concessions.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to waste time until I see what happens.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte is in Washington Wednesday for a meeting at the White House where he’s expected to propose Europe’s latest plan for a ceasefire. A group of 11 European leaders also signed onto a statement agreeing with the need to freeze the current front lines as a starting point in further negotiations.
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