Trump sets August 8 deadline for Ukraine-Russia peace deal, US tells UN

Indian Express

4 days ago

US President Donald Trump wants a deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine by August 8, a senior American diplomat told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
'Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace,' Kelley told the 15-member council.
'I'm going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,' Trump said in response to a question while sitting with the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, earlier this week. 'There's no reason in waiting. There's no reason in waiting. It's 50 days. I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made.'
Russian and Ukrainian diplomats met in Istanbul last week, but their discussions yielded little beyond an agreement on a prisoner exchange. Ukraine proposed a high-level summit by the end of August between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Moscow responded that such a meeting would only be appropriate if it were to finalise a peace agreement. The talks marked the third round of negotiations in Istanbul. Notably, Putin has yet to attend any of them, despite repeated urging from Trump.
Trump's recent remarks signal a shift from his earlier, more conciliatory tone toward the Kremlin. The US President has also expressed his growing disillusionment with Putin. 'We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street, and I say that's not the way to do it. So we'll see what happens with that.'
Two weeks earlier, Trump had threatened a new round of harsh sanctions against Russia if Moscow failed to begin a ceasefire to allow negotiations. The 15 July announcement, delivered during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, also included a new agreement for European allies to purchase billions of dollars in armaments for Ukraine, including Patriot missile defense systems.