Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Trump says he wants Zelensky to “make a deal” with Russia

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Volodymyr Zelensky to make a deal with Russia -- redoubling pressure on the Ukrainian leader even as Moscow grinds on with the war it launched four years ago. Trump also said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Stephen Hubbard --...

en.prothomalo.com

Trump says he wants Zelensky to “make a deal” with Russia

AFP

Washington, United States

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump BSS

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Volodymyr Zelensky to make a deal with Russia -- redoubling pressure on the Ukrainian leader even as Moscow grinds on with the war it launched four years ago.

Trump also said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Stephen Hubbard -- an American taken captive by Moscow's forces years earlier in Ukraine -- in a fresh sign of his pivot back to Moscow.

"We want Zelensky to make a deal. He can make a deal. He could have made a deal two years ago when we had our little chat in the Oval Office," Trump told reporters in the same room.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky had a bruising televised confrontation in the Oval Office in February 2025, shortly after the Ukraine-skeptic US president returned to office.

"He's going to have to want to make a deal, because I don't think his people are going to stand for it any longer," Trump said Tuesday.

Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured since Trump partially lifted sanctions to strike a diesel-supply deal with Putin and slammed Zelensky as a warmonger for Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The Ukrainian leader met Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday for talks aimed at easing the tensions.

Zelensky hailed the resumption of US intelligence sharing on looming Russian strikes, but insisted Kyiv must be included in any future talks on its fate after meetings with US envoys.

Ukraine has been increasingly alarmed by Trump's return to effectively blaming Kyiv for a failure to end the war that began with Moscow's February 2022 invasion, and by his warm words towards Putin.

Trump indicated that a deal with Russia to free Hubbard could be near.

"I've been talking to President Putin about Hubbard. I've been talking to him at length. I've asked him to release him. Let's see what happens," Trump said in response to a question from an AFP journalist.

"Just stick with me," Trump added. "Just you remember that question a couple of days from now, because I do things that nobody else can do."​

 

[Saif]

Putin agrees to resume 3-way peace talks with Ukraine and US

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoffin Washington's latest push to stop Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War Two. The negotiations in a grand im

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Putin agrees to resume 3-way peace talks with Ukraine and US

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with US special envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting at the Constantine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Oct 21, 2026.
Source: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoffin Washington's latest push to stop Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War Two.

The negotiations in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, the ninth time that Witkoff has met Putin in person, began with a goodwill gesture from Russia - the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired US school teacher held in Russia whom US President Trump had asked the Kremlin chief to release.

Wednesday's encounter unfolded amid concerns in Kyiv and among its allies that the United States is backing away from Ukraine, at times holding back real-time intelligence on Russian attacks and hobbling Ukraine's military communications.

The latest talks also came more than two years since Trump promised in his successful election campaign to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.

The Kremlin said the new 3-way peace talks, which would be at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would be focused on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended. They could begin sometime on or after November 10, it said. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.

The Kremlin was less upbeat, however, about the outcome of talks Witkoff had held a day earlier in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leaders of Finland and Norway, and European and NATO representatives. Witkoff told Putin the talks had been characterised by "some degree of momentum" and a US official said Ukraine had brought new ideas and proposals.

"These nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the St Petersburg meeting - which lasted nearly three hours.

Possible Meeting Between Trump, Putin And XI

Ukraine and Russia remain far apart when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal, though Trump has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to strike some kind of a deal. He said on Tuesday it was time for Ukraine to end the war or face "a very bad thing."

Putin also used Wednesday's talks to offer to help Trump deal with Iran, saying Russia had a decades-long relationship with Tehran which it has repeatedly offered to leverage to address US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. Putin told Witkoff it was possible and necessary to get a deal with Tehran, the Kremlin said.

Russia could also supply vast quantities of fertiliser to the United States to help US farmers, the Russian president told Witkoff.

A potential meeting in China next month with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was also discussed. The Kremlin said Beijing was already preparing what it said would be the first meeting of its kind in history.

'New Ideas'

Putin has shown few signs of compromising on his central war aims, which include full Russian control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, no NATO membership for Kyiv, and an overall peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special investment envoy, was also present at the talks with Witkoff and the Kremlin said that major joint economic projects had been discussed, including some that were close to being realised.

Witkoff said he had brought some documents with him containing various ideas for a potential peace deal for Putin to review, and that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, also wanted to convey some ideas to Putin. Kushner later joined the meeting remotely by phone.

Zelensky said he hoped to discuss key issues on how to end the war during a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any Putin-Zelensky meeting would need to be painstakingly prepared in advance by aides to make it worthwhile.

Fraying US-Ukraine Ties

US-Ukraine ties have deteriorated sharply since Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia earlier this month to help lower prices in the United States. High fuel costs since he launched strikes on Iran have hurt his Republicans ahead of November legislative elections.

Since the diesel deal, Ukraine has complained of disruption to some intelligence sharing and to its use of the Starshield military satellite system, though Zelensky said that Tuesday's Oslo meeting had reached an agreement to resolve those issues.

Citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that billionaire Elon Musk had last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service that Ukraine relies on to track Russian ballistic missile strikes.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Musk has said any such decision is taken by the US military or the president. Trump has said he was not responsible and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Wednesday that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv's ability to access Starlink.​

 

[Saif]

https://www.newagebd.net/post/europe/319100/ukraine-receives-252-bodies-in-swap-with-russia

Ukraine receives 252 bodies in swap with Russia
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukraine has received the bodies of 252 people in an exchange of war dead with Russia, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

Russia received 25 bodies in return, Russian lawmaker Shamsail Saraliev was quoted as saying by the RBC news outlet.

The exchange of prisoners of war and fallen soldiers is one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring sides.

‘As a result of repatriation measures, the bodies of 252 deceased have been returned to Ukraine,’ said Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Police and other officials would ‘carry out all the necessary procedures to identify the repatriated deceased’, it said.

It thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for help facilitating the exchange, posting pictures on social media of several large white trailer trucks parked back to back, as workers in white, hooded jumpsuits.

The I Want to Live foundation, which is affiliated with Ukraine’s Intelligence Directorate and involved in managing Russia’s prisoners of war, meanwhile said ‘the remains of Russian servicemen were repatriated’.

Among them was the body of a Sri Lankan citizen, the organisation said, adding that he was sent to Russia since he was considered under international law as a combatant in the Russian army.

The exchanges of remains between the two sides take place regularly.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov estimated that more than 26,000 bodies and human remains had been repatriated to Ukraine through exchange operations.

Most of them are still awaiting identification.

According to official announcements from the two sides, Ukraine has received the remains of 5,300 people since the start of this year alone, while Russia has received fewer than 300.

The war, Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, has claimed tens of thousands of lives since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.​