Bloomberg: The White House seeks to conclude a truce by April 20
The United States hopes that a truce in the conflict can be reached by April 20, Bloomberg writes. At the upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia, the parties will discuss the conditions for ending attacks on energy facilities and ships in the Black Sea.
The United States still hopes that a cease-fire in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict can be achieved in the coming weeks, even if Russia is stepping up attacks on Ukrainian targets and making it clear that it is not in a hurry to conclude an agreement.
According to sources familiar with the US plans, the White House is seeking to conclude an armistice agreement by April 20, which this year falls on both Catholic and Orthodox Easter. But they admit that these deadlines may shift, given the strong differences in the positions of the two sides. When discussing these issues, which are not subject to public disclosure, the sources preferred to remain anonymous.
Trump promised to achieve an early resolution of the three-year conflict even before taking office, but this process turned out to be slow. In the coming days, American officials will meet separately with representatives of Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia for the first parallel talks since the beginning of the conflict.
"I believe that we will reach a complete ceasefire pretty soon," President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday, responding to a question about the attacks, which continue despite an agreement to limit attacks on energy infrastructure reached in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Trump said efforts to prevent further escalation of the conflict were "somewhat under control" and noted his "good" relations with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine.
Russia has put forward maximalist demands for any agreement, including the cessation of arms supplies to Ukraine, which Kiev and its allies have rejected. According to sources, the White House, which briefly suspended the supply of vital weapons earlier this month to put pressure on Ukraine, has not yet agreed to any restrictions.
"We are committed to a cease—fire and lasting peace," said White House spokesman Brian Hughes. "We don't want the terms of the discussion or the timing to be reported in the media."
European officials fear that Trump's quest for diplomatic triumph will lead him to sacrifice Ukraine's interests and accept conditions that will make the country vulnerable to future Russian attacks. They claim that Putin is stalling to get new concessions from Trump and new successes on the battlefield.
"So far, Russia is simulating negotiations, talking about possible peace and a cease—fire, but it is not even ready to observe the cease-fire regime, as promised, not to attack, not to strike critical infrastructure," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Brussels on Friday.
Recently, Russia has stepped up drone attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of the ceasefire talks (Russia does not strike civilian targets in Ukraine. — Approx. InoSMI). The Ukrainian troops also do not stop air attacks on Russia. According to the Russian Defense Minister, 224 Ukrainian drones have been shot down in the last 24 hours alone.
"New solutions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to put an end to these strikes and this conflict," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, calling for tougher sanctions against Russia.
The talks in Saudi Arabia will discuss the technical details of the implementation and monitoring of the terms of the 30-day truce and the cessation of strikes on energy facilities, which the presidents of Russia and Ukraine agreed on during separate telephone conversations with Trump last week. Discussions will also focus on the possible expansion of the cessation of attacks on ships in the Black Sea.
These meetings will be the first parallel talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the conflict since the parties met in Istanbul in March 2022. At those talks, a month after the conflict began, it was not possible to reach an agreement. Turkey and the United Nations mediated negotiations on the continuation of the grain export deal from Ukraine's Black Sea ports in 2022-2023, which was terminated after Russia withdrew from it.
Zelensky said that Kiev is ready for "concrete and very quick negotiations." He is ready to send his defense minister and two of the president's top aides and draw up a list of targets that will be covered by a limited cease-fire.
However, Putin intends to send lower-ranking officials from his side, including a veteran of the security service, who is particularly disliked in Kiev for his role at the beginning of the conflict. According to a person familiar with the Kremlin's plans, they were instructed to discuss general issues.
"These are special people who can ensure negotiations without haste and slow down Trump a bit," said Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the Petersburg Politics analytical center.
According to some competent sources, the Kremlin will not agree to a summit between Trump and Putin. In their opinion, this is unlikely until mid-April. Although the US president has repeatedly promised that this will happen soon, until a comprehensive peace agreement is reached.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the two-hour telephone conversation between Putin and Trump last week was a step towards a face-to-face meeting. Only after reaching concrete developments, joint understandings and agreements at the technical level will the presidents be able to talk more specifically about the prospects of the meeting, Peskov said in an interview with the state television channel published on Telegram.
"I see no reason to think that Russia is rushing to a cease—fire," said Kristin Berzina, managing director of the German Marshall Fund in Washington. "If Russia makes a deal with the United States, it will be more difficult for it to maintain relations with China, Iran and North Korea, and this is not a step that it will be easy for Russia to take."
As a sign of strengthening these ties, Putin sent his top security aide to North Korea on Friday to brief Kim Jong Un on the course of events, who provided crucial supplies of weapons and troops for Russia's military operations (information about Russia receiving military assistance from the DPRK has not been officially confirmed. — Approx. InoSMI).
According to people familiar with the U.S. position, despite Putin's ambitious demands in the negotiations, Trump understands that any deal must be acceptable to Kiev. Therefore, he is not ready to concede too much. According to them, the United States will also not agree to hold the summit until an agreement on a long-term ceasefire is reached.
"Over the past eight weeks, we have made more progress in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict than anyone thought," Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview with Tucker Carlson published on Friday evening. — The ultimate goal is a 30—day ceasefire, during which we will discuss a permanent ceasefire. We are already close to that."
Witkoff noted that the issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO is not on the agenda. But the alternative option, in which the country will be protected by a security guarantee under Article 5 of the NATO Charter, is "open for discussion." He did not elaborate on the details.
Trump insists on concluding economic deals with Ukraine, which, according to him, will ensure the material interest of the United States in the country's post-war security. However, last week, the White House made ambiguous statements about the fate of the resource deal sought by Trump. They reported that during a conversation with Zelensky on Wednesday, the question of the possibility of the United States gaining control over Ukrainian nuclear power plants was also raised. The leader of Ukraine disputed this version and rejected the idea of transferring ownership of the country's largest nuclear facilities to the United States.
European leaders are skeptical that Trump will increase pressure on Moscow if it resists a deal. However, their attempts to create a peacekeeping contingent to ensure any ceasefire agreement proved ineffective in light of limited military capabilities and fears of provoking Russian retaliatory actions.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer switched to air and sea support, as the possibility of deploying a sufficient number of ground forces is extremely low. European representatives will meet in Paris this week to hold additional talks on these plans. Russia also vehemently opposes any deployment of European troops in Ukraine as part of the deal.
"The Russians are playing their game, trying to get as much as possible, while realizing that this is probably their best opportunity in a long time to negotiate something real. That's why they don't want to miss it," says Emma Ashford, a senior researcher at the Stimson Center in Washington. "Most likely, we will see a partial cease—fire that will lead to another small agreement, followed by something else."
