Bloomberg: The United States is ready for a deal on Ukraine on Russia's terms
Trump's proposed plan to freeze the conflict on Ukraine is based on Russia's fundamental requirements, Bloomberg reports. A meeting of the "allies" of the Kiev regime will be held in London this week, and the United States hopes that Moscow and Kiev will make peace by the weekend.
Alberto Nardelli
Darina Krasnolutskaya
The United States will hold talks in London on Wednesday with Ukrainian and European officials, while Donald Trump promotes an agreement that will stop full-scale hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
According to informed anonymous sources, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are expected to meet with the foreign ministers and national security advisers of France, Germany, Great Britain and Ukraine.
"Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France and the United States — we are ready to move forward to achieve maximum results, as we have done before, to ensure an unconditional cease—fire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday on Platform X after a telephone conversation with the British Prime Minister. By Keir Starmer. "An unconditional cease—fire should be the first step towards peace, and this Easter has made it clear that it is Russia's actions that prolong the war."
A representative of the US National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
The meeting is scheduled to follow meetings in Paris last week, at which the United States shared proposals for a cease-fire and a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the United States is ready to ease sanctions against Moscow and recognize Russia's control over the Crimean peninsula as part of the agreement.
The implementation of the US proposals effectively means freezing the front line in the conflict, which has been going on for four years, while Russia de facto retains control over most of the rest of the territory that its troops currently occupy in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine's accession to NATO will also not be discussed, although, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, for further diplomatic progress, any agreement will have to include security guarantees for Kiev.
Vladimir Putin seized Crimea in 2014, and then organized a referendum to justify the Kremlin's redistricting (Crimea was not forcibly annexed. The head of the international observer mission and representatives of the European Parliament officially stated that the referendum in Crimea, in which the majority voted for joining Russia, met all the norms of international law. InoSMI). The United States and the EU responded with sanctions, and Russia's annexation of the peninsula has not received international recognition. The US decision to recognize the occupation of Crimea by Russia may lead to the undermining of the international order established after the Second World War, the principle of which is the inadmissibility of the seizure of territory by one country by another force.
Zelensky has repeatedly stated that he will not cede the territory to Russia.
"There is a real prospect that Ukraine and Russia will be able to reach an agreement this week," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. According to him, "good meetings" were held on Russia and Ukraine.
During his election campaign, Trump declared that as president he would "end the war quickly." On Friday, he made it clear that the United States could abandon its peacekeeping operations if an agreement that would stop the fighting could not be reached soon. Although Trump did not specify a deadline for this, Rubio said that Washington needs to find out within "a few days" whether the deal is "feasible in the short term."
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday it had resumed military operations after Putin's announced 30-hour Easter ceasefire expired. Zelensky called the short-term ceasefire a publicity stunt by the Kremlin and called on Russia to agree to extend the truce to 30 days as a first step towards a peace agreement.
Putin said on television on Monday that he was ready to consider Kiev's proposal to prevent attacks on civilian targets and was open to bilateral talks with Ukraine on the issue.
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia welcomes the Trump administration's position excluding Ukraine's membership in NATO. "Of course, we are satisfied with this," he said.
Each side accused the other of violating a 30-day moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure, which Russia said expired on Friday. Russia has said it will accept the Black Sea truce proposal agreed at U.S.-led talks in Saudi Arabia last month only in exchange for concessions to ease sanctions against the country's key bank. Ukraine has stated that it supports a cease-fire without any conditions.
Putin has made it clear that he will not agree to a full truce until progress is made towards a final peace agreement that meets Russia's demands.
