U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that there was a “good chance” for a peace deal to be reached to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has lasted nearly four years.
His remarks came after a roughly four-hour high-level U.S.-Ukraine meeting in the U.S. state of Florida earlier on Sunday.
The talks were “going along, and they’re going along well,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“I think that there’s a good chance we can make a deal,” he said.
Following the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that although “additional progress was made” on a revised peace plan to end the conflict, “there is more work to be done.”
“There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation,” Rubio said.
The Trump administration has “also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side, but we have a pretty good understanding of their views as well,” Rubio said.
“The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war,” Rubio said before the meeting began. “But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.”
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and head of the Ukrainian delegation, described the talks as “difficult but productive.”
“We discussed all the matters that are important for Ukraine. And the U.S. was super supportive,” Umerov told reporters.
“We have clear directives and priorities: safeguarding Ukrainian interests, ensuring substantive dialogue, and advancing on the basis of the progress achieved in Geneva,” Umerov wrote on social media X after the meeting began. “We are working to secure real peace for Ukraine and reliable, long-term security guarantees.”
Neither Rubio nor Umerov took questions from reporters after their talks.
Sunday’s talks covered possible timetables for new elections in Ukraine, and the prospect of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine, said a senior U.S. official.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner also joined Sunday’s talks, and will fly to Moscow on Monday for further discussions, The Wall Street Journal reported.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X: “In the coming days, it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
Earlier this month, U.S. media outlets revealed a White House-drafted 28-point peace plan that Ukrainian and European officials criticized as overly favorable to Moscow. The plan was later revised during U.S., Ukrainian and European talks in Geneva, with the changes remaining unclear.
Trump has said that he will meet with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts only when the peace deal “is final or in its final stages.” Enditem
Source: Xinhua
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