War Archive 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

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Trump and Zelensky hold first of two meetings in Rome

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have met inside St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope Francis' funeral. The White House described the 15-minute meeting as "very productive" and a Ukrainian spokesman said the pair will meet for a second time later on Saturday. Trum

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Trump and Zelensky hold first of two meetings in Rome
BBC
Published :
Apr 26, 2025 17:18
Updated :
Apr 26, 2025 17:18

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have met inside St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope Francis' funeral.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as "very productive" and a Ukrainian spokesman said the pair will meet for a second time later on Saturday.

Trump and Zelensky are attending the service in Vatican City alongside other heads of state and royals including Prince William, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their meeting comes one day after Trump said Russia and Ukraine were "very close to a deal", following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

The meeting was the fourth such visit Witkoff had made to Russia since the start of the year, with the three-hour talks later described as "very useful" by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ushakov also added that it had brought the "Russian and US positions closer together, not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues" of which the "possibility of resuming direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed".

Steven Cheung, White House communications director, said more details about the Vatican City private meeting between Trump and Zelensky would follow.

Images were later released by a Ukrainian official - Zelensky's head of office Andriy Yermak - of the two leaders sat on chairs inside the basilica.

A separate photo also showed Trump and Zelensky stood in conversation with Sir Keir and Macron inside the basilica.

Saturday's meetings are the first time the two leaders have met face-to-face since February after an unprecedented confrontation occurred in the Oval Office.

During the heated exchange Trump accused the Ukrainian president of "gambling with World War Three" by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that "a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything".

During the funeral the pair were not sat near one another due to the seating arrangements being organised in French alphabetical order.​

 

[Saif]

Trump doubts Putin’s intentions to end war

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter’s basilica before Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash and the US president later cast doubt on whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal...

www.newagebd.net

Trump doubts Putin’s intentions to end war
Agence France-Presse . Washington, United States 26 April, 2025, 23:24

Donald Trump | AFP file photo

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter’s basilica before Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash and the US president later cast doubt on whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal.

Zelensky said they discussed a possible unconditional ceasefire with Russia and was ‘hoping for results’ from a ‘very symbolic meeting that has the potential to become historic’.

After leaving Rome, Trump indicated a new approach to the Russian president.

‘There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,’ Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

‘It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!’

Trump and Zelensky sat face-to-face, leaning forward in deep discussion in a corner of the basilica, as the pope’s wooden coffin lay in front of the altar before the funeral began, according to images released by the Ukrainian presidency.

The US president flew out of Rome immediately after the funeral mass and there were no further talks. But the two leaders also briefly huddled inside the basilica with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s office described the exchanges as ‘positive’ and he later met Zelensky one-on-one.

In St Peter’s Square, Trump rubbed shoulders with dozens of world leaders, many keen to raise the tariffs he has unleashed. Both sides had kept the prospects of a meeting vague ahead of the funeral with Trump saying only it was ‘possible’.

Putin on Friday discussed the ‘possibility’ of direct talks with Ukraine in a meeting with Witkoff, according to a Kremlin aide.

He told Witkoff that Russia is ready to resume talks with Ukraine ‘without preconditions’, the Kremlin added Saturday.​

 

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Russia says signal for start of direct peace talks should come from Ukraine

Russia said on Monday it was waiting for a signal from Ukraine to say it was willing to hold direct negotiations to end their war, but had not seen any signs of movement. The Kremlin said last Friday that the possibility of direct talks had been raised during a three-hour meeting between President

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia says signal for start of direct peace talks should come from Ukraine
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 28, 2025 17:20
Updated :
Apr 28, 2025 17:20

Police officers inspect the site of a building hit by a Russian ballistic missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 24, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Russia said on Monday it was waiting for a signal from Ukraine to say it was willing to hold direct negotiations to end their war, but had not seen any signs of movement.

The Kremlin said last Friday that the possibility of direct talks had been raised during a three-hour meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff.

Moscow and Kyiv have not held direct negotiations since March 2022, soon after the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine. Later that year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy adopted a decree that ruled out negotiations with Putin, after Russia claimed four regions of Ukraine as its own.

Zelenskiy, who met US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral, has said Kyiv would be ready to hold talks with Moscow once a ceasefire deal has stopped the fighting.

Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Monday that continuing Russian attacks contradicted the Kremlin's statements about wanting peace.

"Russia is not ceasing fire at the front and is attacking Ukraine with Shaheds right now," Yermak wrote on Telegram, referring to Iranian-made drones widely used by Russian forces.

"All the Russians' statements about peace without ceasing fire are just plain lies."

Asked by a reporter if the signal for direct talks should come from Ukraine or the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Well, from Kyiv, at least Kyiv should take some actions in this regard. They have a legal ban on this. But so far we don't see any action."

Meanwhile, Moscow would continue its "special military operation", he said.

Moscow and Kyiv are under pressure from the US to find a settlement to end the war, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.

Ukraine accuses Russia of playing for time in order to try to seize more of its territory, and has urged greater international pressure to get Moscow to stop fighting.

Russia accuses Ukraine of being unwilling to make any concessions and of seeking a ceasefire only on its own terms.

Putin told Witkoff on Friday that Russia was ready for talks with Kyiv without preconditions, according to a Kremlin aide.

Trump said on Friday that the two sides were "very close to a deal". In recent days he has been more critical than usual of Moscow, saying there was no reason for it to fire missiles into civilian areas and voicing concern that Putin was "just tapping me along".​

 

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Kremlin says Putin is open to Ukraine peace but warns against rushing a deal

President Vladimir Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and intense work is going on with the United States, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress that Washington wants is difficult to achieve, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be reme

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Kremlin says Putin is open to Ukraine peace but warns against rushing a deal
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 30, 2025 18:11
Updated :
Apr 30, 2025 18:11

A rescuer works at a site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine in this handout picture released April 30, 2025. Photo : Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Civil Administration Serhiy Lysak via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS


President Vladimir Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and intense work is going on with the United States, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress that Washington wants is difficult to achieve, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the more than three-year war in Ukraine.

But Washington has been signalling that it is frustrated by the failure of Moscow and Kyiv to reach terms to end the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

"The (Russian) president remains open to political and diplomatic methods of resolving this conflict," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He noted that Putin had expressed a willingness for direct talks with Ukraine, but that there had been no answer yet from Kyiv.

Russia's aims had to be achieved either way, he added, saying Moscow's preference was to achieve those aims peacefully.

"We understand that Washington is willing to achieve a quick success in this process," Peskov said in English. But news agency TASS quoted Peskov as saying that the root causes of the Ukraine war were too complex to be resolved in one day.

Putin's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 triggered the worst confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Former US President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

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Putin in March said that Russia supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions were worked out or clarified.

On Monday, Putin declared a three-day ceasefire in May to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazis in World War Two.

Swedish police detained a 16-year-old early on Wednesday on suspicion of murder, authorities said, after three people were shot dead in the town of Uppsala the day before.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that progress in resolving the war depended on Russia taking the first step of agreeing to an unconditional ceasefire.

Trump said on Tuesday he thought that Putin wants to stop the war in Ukraine, adding that if it was not for Trump Russia would try to take the whole of Ukraine.

"If it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country," Trump said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that now was the time for concrete proposals from Moscow and Kyiv to end the war and warned that the US will step back as a mediator if there is no progress.

Trump refused to answer a question about whether the United States would halt military aid to Ukraine if Washington walked away from talks.​

 

[Saif]

Russia's Medvedev says nobody can guarantee Kyiv's safety if Ukraine attacks Moscow on May 9

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Saturday that nobody could guarantee that the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv would survive to see May 10 if Ukraine attacked Moscow during World War Two victory celebrations on May 9. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday decla

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Russia's Medvedev says nobody can guarantee Kyiv's safety if Ukraine attacks Moscow on May 9
REUTERS
Published :
May 03, 2025 18:19
Updated :
May 03, 2025 18:19

Deputy head of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev delivers a speech during a session of the educational marathon "Knowledge. First" in Moscow, Russia, April 29, 2025. Photo : Sputnik/Yekaterina Shtukina/Pool via REUTERS

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Saturday that nobody could guarantee that the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv would survive to see May 10 if Ukraine attacked Moscow during World War Two victory celebrations on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in May in the war with Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run on May 8, May 9 - when Putin will host international leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping for celebrations to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany - and May 10.

Responding to Moscow's offer of the three-day ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready as long as the ceasefire would be 30 days in length, something Putin had already ruled out in the near term, saying he wants a long-term settlement not a brief pause.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine, given the continued war with Russia, could not guarantee the safety of any foreign dignitaries who came to Moscow for the traditional May 9 victory parade.

"We cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation. They are responsible for your security, and therefore we will not give you any guarantees," he said.

Medvedev, a former Russian president who has emerged as one of Moscow's most outspoken anti-Western hawks since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, called Zelenskiy's statement a "verbal provocation" and said nobody had asked for Kyiv's security guarantees for the May 9 events.

"(Zelenskiy) understands that in the event of a real provocation on Victory Day, nobody will be able to guarantee that Kyiv will live to see May 10," Medvedev said on his official Telegram channel.​