President Donald Trump urged Russia on Friday to seek an end to its three-year-long war against Ukraine.
Trump, who has directed most of his criticism toward Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky, is ramping up the pressure on Russia, pushing the authoritarian country to reach a peace deal and end the fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people, including soldiers and civilians on both sides, have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Russia has to get moving. Too many people are DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war – A war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s message to Russia comes as his envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in the country to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss potential pathways to peace, Axios reported. The White House appears eager to restart talks with Russia after negotiations have stalled. If the meeting goes through, it would be Witkoff’s third meeting with Putin since the Trump administration took over in January.
The president’s frustration with Putin has grown in recent weeks. Last month, Trump told NBC News that he was “very angry, pissed off, when Putin started getting into Zelensky’s credibility and started talking about new leadership in Ukraine.”
“He considers Zelensky not credible, he’s supposed to be making a deal with him whether you like him, you don’t like him,” he later told reporters. “So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.”
During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump remained hopeful that a deal would be made with Russia and Ukraine to end the war.
“We are making progress. We hope that we are getting relatively close to getting a deal between Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting,” Trump said.
Last month, the White House said it had secured an agreement from Russia and Ukraine “to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.” The agreement also banned both countries from conducting strikes on energy facilities. Shortly after the apparent agreement on the Black Sea ceasefire, however, both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of targeting energy facilities.
