Trump gives two weeks to assess Russia-Ukraine peace prospects

Donald Trump on Thursday set a two-week time frame for assessing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as the US president ramps up his efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

“I would say within two weeks we’re going to know one way or the other,” he said in a telephone interview when asked about the chances of a peace agreement.

“After that, we’ll have to maybe take a different tack,” Trump told Todd Starnes, a host for right-wing media outlet Newsmax, without giving further details.

The Republican, who had promised during last year’s presidential election to end the war in one day, has so far failed to achieve any major breakthroughs — more than three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

He met Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday at a highly anticipated summit in Alaska that failed to reach an accord and saw Trump drop his push for an initial ceasefire.

On Monday, the US president held talks at the White House with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and a handful of European allies.

Those meetings raised hopes that Putin and Zelensky could meet directly for a peace summit, as both leaders initially appeared open to that option.

But Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of “trying to avoid the necessity to meet” and said that it did not want to end the war.

Russia, meanwhile, said that Ukraine did not seem to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow’s demands.

Trump has a track record of issuing two-week deadlines to deliberate on Ukraine and other issues.

In late May, he said he would assess within that period whether Putin was serious about achieving a peace deal, promising to respond “differently” if not.

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© Agence France-Presse