Trump Says He Would Send High-Level US Team to Moscow for Ukraine Peace Talks

President Trump said he is ready to send a high-powered US delegation into Moscow to accelerate efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “I would do that,” Trump told reporters during a press gaggle near the White House on Saturday when asked if he would send negotiators directly to the Russian capital. ” The four-year war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, began in February 2022.

Trump’s remarks came with negotiations stalled due to the ongoing Iran war and followed a fragile three-day cease-fire brokered by Washington. The truce is supposed to remain in place until Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed not to disrupt Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on Saturday, marking the Soviet Union’s historic victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 1,000 prisoners of war on each side over the weekend. The temporary cease-fire held overnight with no major attacks reported by either side after midnight Friday. The truce marks a rare three-day period without an air raid alert over Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022.

Com reported that the pause in fighting appeared to hold without disruption to the Moscow parade. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he would be willing to sit down with Zelensky in a neutral country but only once final agreements to end the war have been reached. Putin emphasized that any face-to-face meeting with Zelensky would be focused on signing the agreements, not on negotiations.

The two sides are still far apart on a deal, with the main difference over who will get control of the contested Donbas region. A key goal of Putin has been to seize control of all of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, made up of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Russia currently occupies virtually the entire Luhansk region and roughly 81% of Donetsk province.

Russia occupied 76% of Donetsk province in September, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Trump’s proposal for direct talks in Moscow reflects an intensified push to resolve the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives monthly. The prisoner exchange and temporary cease-fire offered a brief de-escalation even as territorial disputes in eastern Ukraine remain unresolved.

Putin’s conditions for any summit with Zelensky underscored the gap between the two leaders on the sequence of any peace process.