Donald Trump says he will meet with Vladimir Putin ‘very shortly' to discuss the war in Ukraine
'We're going to be announcing later, and we're going to have a meeting with Russia,' Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.
Those comments came as Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield expressed little hope for a diplomatic solution to the war and Mr Trump's deadline arrived on Friday for the Kremlin to make peace.
Exasperated that Mr Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Mr Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement.
President Donald Trump (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Mr Trump's efforts to pressure Mr Putin into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress.
Russia's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armour while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.
Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.
Ukrainian forces are locked in intense battles along the 620-mile front line that snakes from north-east to south-east Ukraine.
The Pokrovsk area of the eastern Donetsk region is taking the brunt of punishment as Russia seeks to break out into the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.
Ukraine has significant manpower shortages.
Intense fighting is also taking place in Ukraine's northern Sumy border region, where Ukrainian forces are engaging Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements being sent from there to Donetsk.
Russian president Vladimir Putin (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
In the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk, a commander said he believes Moscow is not interested in peace.
'It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,' Buda, a commander of a drone unit in the Spartan Brigade, told The Associated Press.
He used only his call sign, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military.
'I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that. It does not want to negotiate. So the only option is to defeat them,' he said.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw, said troops are determined to thwart Russia's invasion.
'We are on our land, we have no way out,' he said. 'So we stand our ground, we have no choice.'
The Kremlin said that Mr Putin had a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the Russian leader informed Mr Xi about the results of his meeting earlier this week with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kremlin officials said Mr Xi 'expressed support for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a long-term basis.'
Mr Putin is due to visit China next month. China, along with North Korea and Iran, have provided military support for Russia's war effort, the US says.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said on X that he also had a call with Mr Putin to speak about the latest Ukraine developments.
Mr Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, which the American president says is helping to finance Russia's war.
Mr Putin's calls followed his phone conversations with the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, the Kremlin said.
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