Ukraine-Russia war latest: White House says peace deal ‘has never been closer’ ahead of Trump-Putin talks
The White House has said a peace deal to end Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine has “never been closer” ahead of Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last night: “I won’t get ahead of those negotiations, but I can say we are on the 10th yard line of peace. And we’ve never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done.”
Ms Leavitt’s remarks echo the US president’s own.
While flying from Florida to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday night, Mr Trump said: “We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
The US president’s comments came as a Russian official said Moscow will seek “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal that Nato nations will exclude Kyiv from membership, and that Ukraine will remain “neutral”.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko also repeated the Kremlin’s position that Moscow is categorically against the deployment of Nato observers to Ukraine.
