- Trump says he will evaluate Putin's actions in the next two weeks.
- Zelenskiy greets Trump as a step towards peace.
- Russia launches a larger attack this month in the midst of peace conversations.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said Tuesday that he hoped that Vladimir Putin de Russia progresses at the end of the war in Ukraine, but admitted that the Kremlin leader would not want to reach an agreement, and added that this would create a “difficult situation” for Putin.
In an interview with the “Fox & Friends” program of Fox News, Trump said he believed that Putin's course would be clear in the next two weeks. Trump again ruled out the US troops in the field in Ukraine and did not give details about the security guarantees that he previously said that Washington could offer kyiv under any postwar agreement.
“I don't think it's a problem (reaching a peace agreement), to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of that. I think everyone is tired, but you never know,” Trump said.
“We are going to find out about President Putin in the next two weeks … It is possible that he does not want to reach an agreement,” said Trump, who previously threatened more sanctions on Russia and the nations that buy their oil if Putin does not make peace.
Ukraine and his European allies have been driven by Trump's promise of security guarantees to help end the war during an extraordinary summit on Monday, but face many unanswered questions, including Russia's will to play ball.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, praised the conversations in the White House as a “great step forward” to end the most fatal conflict in Europe in 80 years and establish a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump in the coming weeks.
Zelenskiy was flanked by allies leaders, including Germany, France and Great Britain, at the summit. His warm relationship with Trump contrasts sharply with his disastrous oval office meeting in February.
But the path to peace is still deeply uncertain and Zelenskiy can be forced to make painful commitments to end the war, which began with the large -scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. Analysts say that more than 1 million people have been killed or injured in the conflict.
Russian attacks
While Washington's conversations allowed a temporary sensation of relief in kyiv, there was no relief in the fight. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in a night attack against Ukraine, said the Ukraine Air Force, the largest this month. The Ministry of Energy said that Russia had directed energy facilities in the central region of Poltava, home of the only oil refinery in Ukraine, causing large fires.
However, Russia also returned the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow received 19 bodies from his own soldiers in return, according to the state news agency TASS.
“The good news (of Monday's summit) is that there was no explosion. Trump did not demand the Ukrainian capitulation or cut the support. The mood music was positive and the transatlantic alliance lives,” said John Foreman, a former British defense attachment to kyiv and Moscow, Reuters said.
“On the negative side, there is great uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what the United States has in mind.”
The allies of Ukraine held conversations in the so -called “coalition of the will” on Tuesday, discussing additional sanctions to increase the pressure on Russia. The group also agreed that planning teams will meet with American counterparts in the coming days to advance security guarantees for Ukraine.
It was expected that NATO military leaders meet Wednesday to talk about Ukraine, with the American general Dan Caine, president of the chiefs of the joint staff, hoped to attend the meeting virtually, authorities told Reuters.
“Now we are actively working at all levels in the details, how will the architecture of the guarantees be, with all the members of the Willing coalition, and very specifically with the United States,” Zelenskiy said in X.
'Puntilla de Puntilla'
Russia has not been explicit with a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any format to discuss peace in Ukraine, but any national leaders meeting “must be prepared with the greatest thorough.”
Putin has said that Russia will not tolerate the troops of the NATO alliance in Ukraine. Nor has he shown any signal signal of the demands of territory, including lands not under the military control of Russia, after its summit with Trump last Friday in Alaska.
Neil Melvin, director of International Security at the Royal United Services Institute fight, said Russia could drag the war while trying to divert the pressure from the United States with a prolonged peace negotiation.
“I think that behind this there is a struggle between Ukraine and Europeans on the one hand, and the Russians for the other, not to present Trump as the obstacle to their peace process,” said Melvin.
“Everyone is on Trump,” to avoid any guilt, he said, adding that in security guarantees, “the problem is that what Trump has said is so vague that it is very difficult to take it seriously.”
