Trump wants deal to end Ukraine war in a week

West Australian

3 days ago

US President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants a deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine in the next week, the United States told the United Nations Security Council.
"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," senior US diplomat John Kelley told the 15-member council.
Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia "10 days from today" if Moscow showed no progress toward ending its war in Ukraine.
Kyiv and Moscow have held three rounds of talks in Istanbul this year that yielded exchanges of prisoners and bodies, but no breakthrough to defuse the more than three-year conflict.
"We intend to continue the negotiations in Istanbul," Russia's deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the council, but he added: "Despite the meetings in Istanbul, in the West, the war party did not go away ... We continue hearing voices of those who think that diplomacy is just a way of criticising Russia and exerting pressure on it."
Ukraine's deputy UN Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said Russia must be confronted with "unity, resolve and action."
"We seek a comprehensive, just and lasting peace grounded in the principles of the UN Charter and nothing less. We repeat - a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire is essential. It is the first step to halting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," she told the council.
Meanwhile, Russia launched waves of missiles and drones on Kyiv before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 14 people including a six-year-old boy, and wounding well over 100 others, officials in the Ukrainian capital said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, put the death toll of the war at 14 and said rescue operations were continuing into the evening. The Interior Ministry said more than 1200 police and rescuers were tackling the aftermath.
Ukraine's national rescue service said 15 had been killed and 145 injured.
Zelenskiy said dozens remained in hospital. Fourteen of the injured were children, the largest number of children hurt in a single attack on the city since Russia started its full-scale invasion almost three-and-a-half years ago.
In an earlier post on Telegram, the president said Russia had launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles. "Today the world has once again seen Russia's response to our desire for peace ... Therefore, peace without strength is impossible," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
City authorities announced a day of mourning to be held on Friday.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv's military-industrial complex.
Explosions rocked Kyiv from about midnight onwards and blazes lit up the night sky.
Yurii Kravchuk, 62, stood wrapped in a blanket next to a damaged building with a bandage around his head. He had heard the missile alert but did not get to a shelter in time, he told Reuters.
"I started waking up my wife and then there was an explosion. My daughter ended up in the hospital," he said.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has stepped up air strikes in recent months on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front lines of the war.
Thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them Ukrainian, have been killed since Moscow invaded in 2022.
Kyiv and Moscow have held three rounds of talks in Istanbul this year that yielded exchanges of prisoners and bodies, but no breakthrough to defuse the conflict.