Ukraine peace deal ‘reasonably close’ – Trump
Moscow and Kiev are close to reaching an agreement on ending the Ukraine conflict, US President Donald Trump told the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Wednesday. He also announced he would be meeting Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday, the same day a team of US negotiators would visit Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Washington launched mediation efforts to resolve the conflict after Trump returned to the White House last year. US officials have since held numerous rounds of talks with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, although the efforts have thus far not produced a breakthrough. The sides have nevertheless called the meetings “constructive” and reported some progress.
“I think I can say that we're reasonably close,” Trump said, responding to a journalist’s question about the progress in the peace process. “I believe they [Russia and Ukraine] are at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done.”
The president did not elaborate on the details of a potential agreement but said that reaching one requires maintaining a “difficult balance.” According to Trump, there were moments when one side was “set” and ready for a deal and the other one would find the conditions unacceptable, and vice versa.
US-mediated peace efforts intensified late last year. Trump’s initial peace plan that was leaked to the media in November involved Kiev ceding territory to Moscow, renouncing its NATO membership aspirations, among other points. In December, Ukraine and its European backers presented a counter-proposal, which had significantly distorted the original US draft and was called a non-starter by Russia. Moscow still insisted it was “fully ready” to resolve the conflict as long as its core security concerns are addressed.
On Tuesday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff had a meeting with Putin's envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, which they both praised as constructive.
