Trump tells Zelenskyy to ‘make a deal with Russia’ and end war
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US President Donald Trump is putting renewed pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart to end the war with Russia, urging him to “make a deal”.
Trump was speaking as Volodymyr Zelenskyy held high stakes talks with US officials in Norway on Tuesday (Wednesday).
US President Donald Trump with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the United Nations General Assembly, in September. Julia Demaree Nikhinson
“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump said from the White House.
He said if that doesn’t happen, “I think it’s going to be a very bad thing.”
The Ukraine-US negotiations in Oslo come as relations between Zelenskyy and Trump hit a new low over delayed weaponry from the American military and a threat to halt intelligence sharing.
Following discussions with US envoy Steve Witkoff in the Norwegian capital and a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Ukrainian leader declared his country was now receiving crucial early warnings from the US about incoming Russian attacks.
“We’re thankful that early warning is now working. This is very important for our people, because we can know when Russian ballistic missiles are coming,” Zelenskky wrote in an X post on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).
Firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on a Kharkiv apartment block. Ukraine media
The importance of intelligence sharing was underscored by a Russian strike that killed at least 10 people in Ukraine during the past 24 hours.
Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Trump upped the pressure on Zelenskyy to make a deal with his country’s Russian invaders after relations between the two men soured again.
“We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,” Trump said.
International security expert Pyotr Kurzin says the chilly relations between Trump and Zelenskyy reflect the US president’s disdain for democratically elected leaders.
He told Today on Wednesday that Trump had more respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’ve always felt that it was... a false relationship that Trump ever showed to Zelenskyy. He has always had a favouritism for Putin, for a strongman, for the centralisation of power.”
Putin ordered the Russian military to invade neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, expecting a swift victory.
But stubborn Ukrainian resistance aided by western military aid worth billions of dollars and sanctions on Russia have resulted in a bloody stalemate.
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