Donald Trump expresses hope Russia’s war in Ukraine is nearing an endgame
“It looks like we’re getting very close,” Trump told reporters at the start of his bilateral meeting with Macron.
The UN assembly approved a duelling European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.
UN votes were symbolic.
The Russian ambassador to the UN has called the US resolution a “good move”.
The US resolution was three paragraphs long and did not include any mention of Russia aggression, saying it “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation”.
It marks a setback for the Trump administration AND A WIN for Ukraine in the 193-member world body.
Of course the UN resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion.
However, it also shows some diminished support for Ukraine, whose resolution passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions. That’s lower than previous votes, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression.
Trump, in broad-ranging comments on the state of the conflict hoped that the conflict could end within weeks and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would soon come to the U.S. to sign a deal to give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals to help repay some of the $180 billion in American aid that’s been sent to Kyiv since the start of the war.
One may call it a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion as the United States on Monday failed to get the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Moscow’s aggression.
And the assembly approved a duelling European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.
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| Putin : Watching and being watched |
Donald Trump sounds unfazed and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine and the war could end 'within weeks'.
Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential deal to end the war, the US President said.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, French president Emmanuel Macron said Europe was prepared to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, including peacekeepers, in the event of a ceasefire.
Trump said he did not see a problem with European troops being sent to Ukraine to serve as peacemakers, adding that he had raised the idea with Putin.
“Yeah, he will accept it,” the US president said.
I have asked him that question. Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for world war.
The US president said the Ukraine war could end “within weeks, if we’re smart”. “If we’re not smart it will keep going...we don’t want that,” he said, adding:
"This could escalate into a third world war, we don’t want that either".
The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favor of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.
They refused, and then the assembly added language to the US proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in violation of the UN Charter.
The vote on the amended US resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine voting “yes,” the US abstaining and Russia voting “no.”
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said her country is exercising its “inherent right to self-defense” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the UN Charter’s requirement that countries respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations.
“As we mark three years of this devastation — Russia’s full invasion against Ukraine — we call on all nations to stand firm and to take ... the side of the Charter, the side of humanity and the side of just and lasting peace, peace through strength,” she said.
The UN general assembly has backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion, spurning a rival US resolution reflecting Donald Trump’s split with Europe and growing union with Vladimir Putin.
The US, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the EU-Ukrainian resolution underlining an extraordinary shift in US policy since the US president’s election that has largely absolved the Russian president of responsibility for the invasion.
In the vote, 93 countries supported the joint European resolution that named Russia an aggressor state and called on it to remove its troops from Ukraine, while 18 countries including the US and Russia voted against. The UN votes on Monday were mostly symbolic.
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