US pushes peace deal after Vatican meet
Top Trump administration officials have pressed Russia and Ukraine to make headway on a peace deal.
The prompt for a deal follows a one-on-one meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at Pope Francisās funeral at the Vatican.
āIt needs to happen soon,ā US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC.
āWe cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if itās not going to come to fruition.ā
Rubio said the United States government would consider in the coming week whether to continue mediating talks āor if itās time to sort of focus on some other issuesā.
Of a possible agreement, Rubio said that the goal had not yet been reached.
āThere are reasons to be optimistic but there are reasons to be realistic of course, as well. Weāre close, but weāre not close enough,ā Rubio said.
āWeāve made real progress but those last couple of steps of this journey were always going to be the hardest ones.ā
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Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi provided an update on the frontline situation. In many directions, the situation remains difficult.
ā Volodymyr Zelenskyy / ŠŠ¾Š»Š¾Š“ŠøŠ¼ŠøŃ ŠŠµŠ»ŠµŠ½ŃŃŠŗŠøŠ¹ (@ZelenskyyUa) April 27, 2025
By midday alone, there have already been nearly 70 Russian assaults on our positions. Fighting continues. The occupier continues its offensiveā¦
Trump and Zelensky met in a basilica on Saturday to try to revive faltering efforts to end Russiaās war with Ukraine.
The meeting was the first between the two leaders since an angry encounter in the Oval Office in Washington DC in February and comes at a critical time in negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the conflict.
In a Truth Social post later on Saturday, Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over recent attacks on Ukraine, saying āthere was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few daysā.
In a pre-taped interview that aired on CBS News on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would continue to target sites used by Ukraineās military.
When asked about a Russian strike on Kyiv last week that killed civilians, Lavrov said āthe target attacked was not something absolutely civilianā and that Russia only targets āsites which are used by the militaryā.
Zelensky wrote on Telegram that his top military commander had reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on Sunday.
āThe situation at the front and the real activity of the Russian army prove that there is currently insufficient pressure on Russia from the world to end this war,ā he said.
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Ukrainian and European officials pushed back last week against some US proposals on how to end Russiaās war in Ukraine, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions, Reuters reported on Friday.
The primary areas of difference in the two proposals were over the sequencing for resolving questions over territory, the lifting of sanctions on Russia, security guarantees and the size of Ukraineās military.
United States proposals called for US recognition of Russiaās control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula the Kremlin seized and annexed in 2014, as well as de facto recognition of Russiaās hold on other parts of Ukraine.
In contrast, the European and Ukrainian proposal defers detailed discussion about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to the US proposal, saying it went too far in ceding swathes of territory in return for a ceasefire.
Despite the divergent views, Trumpās national security adviser on Sunday said the meeting with Zelensky showed his determination to reach a deal.
āThat meeting is going to go down in the history books for President Trump, to be a president of peace,ā National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News.
Waltz said Trump has āexpressed his frustrationā at the leaders of both countries but remained determined to help negotiate an agreement.
Meanwhile, Putin telephoned his top commanders in Kursk to congratulate them on āvictoryā and the end of an operation to expel Ukrainian forces from the region in western Russia, Russian news agencies reported
Zelensky, writing about front-line operations on Sunday, said Ukrainian forces remained active in Kursk and in Russiaās neighbouring Belgorod region.
Russian forces for months have been pressing for the ejection of Ukrainian forces who staged a surprise cross-border incursion last August and seized swathes of territory.
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