The Washington service was attended by military personnel from Australia, New Zealand and the US, as well as former Australian ambassadors Joe Hockey and Arthur Sinodinos and the wider Australian community.
Rudd’s comments come at a vexed time for Ukraine as the Trump administration warns it is close to abandoning peace negotiations and potentially US military support for the country, three years after Putin’s full-scale invasion.
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Earlier in the week, Trump complained about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that Ukraine would not recognise Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014, as Russian territory, then later expressed his frustration at a Russian attack on Kyiv, posting on social media: “Vladimir, STOP!”
US Vice President J.D. Vance outlined a plan that involved in effect freezing current territorial lines and said if both parties could not agree, it was time for the US to “walk away”.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Putin for three hours on Friday (Saturday AEST) to advance talks, and Trump, having landed in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral, said negotiations with both sides had been productive.
“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war.”
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Ukraine’s leadership has drafted a counterproposal to the Trump administration plan, The New York Times has reported, that doesn’t insist that Ukraine join NATO, instead saying its accession would depend on a consensus of members, and leaves territorial issues to be discussed after a full ceasefire.
However, the Times says, it calls for no limits on the size of the Ukrainian military, the deployment in Ukraine of a “European security contingent” backed by the US, and the use of frozen Russian assets to repair war damage in Ukraine, which are likely to be objected to by Moscow.
A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Times that if Zelensky goes to Rome for the Pope’s funeral, he might try to present the counterproposal to the US president personally.
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