Trump not betraying Ukraine by seeking peace deal with Putin, US defence secretary says – live updates – BBC.com
Source: BBC News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war”
This comes after the Kremlin confirmed Ukraine will “of course” take part in any peace deal negotiations
Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday before announcing they agreed talks to end the Ukraine war could start “immediately”
After a Nato meeting in Brussels, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said peace negotiations will involve elements neither Moscow nor Kyiv wants while Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Putin must not be able to “grab another square mile” of Ukraine
Earlier, Trump said there was now a “good possibility” of ending the war
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, eight years after it unilaterally annexed Crimea
Since US President Donald Trump announced that he’d spoken by phone to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the need for talks to end the Ukraine war, tensions have continued to mount.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that his country would “not be able to accept any agreements” made without its involvement – and hours later the Kremlin said Ukraine would “of course” be invited to take part in any peace negotiations.
Trump – who also spoke to Zelensky by phone – has since said similar, while also insisting he knows Putin “very well” and trusts him when he says he wants peace.
Zelensky, on the other hand, used today to issue world leaders a warning “against trusting Putinâs claims of readiness to end the war”.
On a day peppered with news conferences, we were told a variety of other things, too. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said world leaders “have to make sure Putin will not try to grab another square mile, kilometre of Ukraine”; US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Ukraine’s borders would not return to where they were before Russia’s unilateral annexation of Crimea in 2014; and, speaking from the White House, Trump said he would “love” to have Russia back in the G7.
We’re going to leave our live updates there for today, but we’ll be back if there are any major developments. For now, there’s plenty to read across the BBC News website:
More now from President Trump who has told reporters at the White
House that he trusts President Putin when he says wants peace.
“I know him very well,” Trump said earlier. “I think he
would tell me if he didn’t.”
He went on to say that he thinks the war in Ukraine â which has
been going for almost three years now â should never have started.
In a post on X earlier, external, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned world leaders against “trusting Putinâs claims of readiness to end the war.”
I’ve been talking to Ukrainian Valerii Pekar to gauge his
country’s reaction after US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he’d
spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and they’d agreed talks to end the war
in Ukraine should start right away.
Pekar, a professor who teaches at two schools in Kyiv, says he
knows hundreds of people who fought in the war and dozens of families who’ve
lost a loved one.
Ukrainians “feel cold anger” at Trump’s plans, says
Pekar, who has lived in Ukraine throughout the war.
“People in Ukraine know that trying to appease evil leads
to disaster. We have no choice; we want to survive, and we are sad that someone
in the West does not understand this.”
He also says that if Trump makes concessions to Putin, it will
be a “strategic mistake” and show “America’s weakness”.
This war is for Ukraine’s
“right to exist”, Pekar says, adding: “Surrender is not an
option”.
Speaking to reporters in the
White House earlier, Trump said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during
any negotiations on ending the war, echoing the same assurance from the Kremlin.
We’ve just been hearing the latest remarks from US President Donald Trump, who says it was “a mistake” for Russia to be “thrown out” of the G7 group after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump says he “would love” for Russia to re-join the group.
Trump also says Ukraine would be involved in talks to end the three-year war following Russia’s full-scale invasion, echoing comments made by the Kremlin earlier today.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said he came to Brussels with a message from President Donald Trump – he wants to “make Nato great again”.
Hegseth said that meant Europe taking responsibility for its own security and that member states should be spending 5% of their GDP on defence.
It was his message on ending the war in Ukraine that has rocked Nato, though, and Trumpâs direct talks with Russiaâs President Vladimir Putin.
Itâs left Nato and Ukraine side-lined, with the US unilaterally declaring that Ukraine will not become a member of the Alliance nor regain all its lost territories.
And he left no doubt that Trump was in charge, declaring the US president was leading negotiations.
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