Washington (TDI): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday clarified that there is no strict deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace agreement, stating, “The deadline for me is when it’s over.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One while en route to Florida for Thanksgiving, Trump said US negotiators were making progress with both Moscow and Kyiv, and that Russia had agreed to some concessions, though he did not provide specifics.
Earlier reports had suggested that the Trump administration was pushing for a Thursday deadline over the Thanksgiving holiday for Ukraine to accept a US-backed peace plan, which some critics warned could favor Russia heavily. However, Trump and his aides have since stepped back from a firm timetable, emphasizing that an agreement should be reached as soon as possible rather than by a fixed date.
Trump confirmed that his envoy, Steve Witkoff, would travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, with son-in-law Jared Kushner also involved, drawing on his experience helping negotiate the Gaza ceasefire.
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As per media reports, Witkoff, in a mid-October call with Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, had discussed working toward a ceasefire plan for Ukraine and potentially setting up a Trump-Putin call ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to the White House. Trump said he had not heard the recording of the call but called such negotiations standard practice for a dealmaker.
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The president indicated that Russia currently holds the upper hand in the conflict and suggested that it would be in Ukraine’s interest to negotiate a settlement, acknowledging that some Ukrainian territory “might be taken by Russia anyway” in the coming months.
Trump also noted that security guarantees for Ukraine were being coordinated with European allies.
