Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately cease hostilities in Ukraine and finalize a peace agreement.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump expressed frustration over Russia’s continued military aggression, saying, “I want [Putin] to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal.”
The comments came a day after Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican, ahead of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome. Trump suggested progress had been made toward a potential peace plan, but warned that without a breakthrough, the U.S. might reconsider its diplomatic efforts.
"We have the outlines of a deal, I believe, and I want [Putin] to sign it," Trump said before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Airport. He added that Zelenskyy appeared "calmer" and more willing to seek a resolution, even hinting that Kyiv might be prepared to cede Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, as part of negotiations.
However, Trump also voiced skepticism about Putin’s willingness to end the war, which has devastated large parts of eastern Ukraine and caused tens of thousands of casualties.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the urgency of the situation, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that without progress, Washington could halt its mediation efforts. "It needs to happen soon," Rubio stressed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a pre-recorded interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, defended Russia’s military operations, insisting they only target military-related sites. Lavrov dismissed concerns about civilian casualties in recent strikes on Kyiv.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy reported nearly 70 Russian attacks during the day, lamenting that international pressure on Moscow remained insufficient to stop the fighting.
Adding a new layer to the conflict, North Korea officially confirmed that it had deployed troops to support Russia. North Korean state media praised their forces’ role in liberating Russia’s Kursk region and emphasized the strong alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow under a treaty signed last year.
According to Ukrainian officials, North Korea has sent approximately 14,000 troops to aid Russian forces, with 3,000 additional reinforcements replacing battlefield losses. Russia acknowledged for the first time over the weekend that North Korean soldiers were fighting alongside its troops in Kursk.
Despite Moscow’s claims of expelling Ukrainian forces from the last village they held in the Russian region, Kyiv denied these assertions, maintaining that its soldiers were still active in Belgorod.
