Trump urges Russia and Ukraine to “stop the killing” and “claim victory” after meeting Zelensky, seeking to end the war through simultaneous talks with Putin.
US President Donald Trump has urged Russia and Ukraine to halt their war immediately and “let both claim victory”, following a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a day after his lengthy phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Calling his talks with Zelensky “very interesting and cordial”, Trump posted on Truth Social: “I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a deal!”
The US President argued that both leaders should “stop where they are” and declare victory. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim victory, let history decide! No more shooting, no more death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent,” Trump wrote, adding that the war “would have never started if I were President”.
In his post, Trump said “thousands of people are being slaughtered each and every week” and called on both sides to “go home to your families in peace”.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Trump appeared to soften his earlier stance on supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying he would “rather have them not need Tomahawks”. He added: “We are going to be talking about Tomahawks, and would much rather have the war be over, to be honest. We are in it to get the war over.”
Trump noted that the United States needed the missiles for its own defence, remarking, “We need Tomahawks, and we need a lot of other things that we’ve been sending over the last four years to Ukraine.”
Zelensky, however, reiterated Kyiv’s request for the long-range weapons, saying, “Ukraine has thousands of our production drones, but we don’t have Tomahawks. That’s why we need Tomahawks.”
The two leaders also differed on their assessment of Putin’s intentions. Trump insisted the Russian leader “wants to end the war”, while Zelensky countered, “Putin doesn’t want” to end it.
Trump’s phone call with Putin, held the previous day, reportedly lasted two and a half hours. He said “great progress was made” and announced plans to meet the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary. A delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian officials next week to prepare for a second Trump-Putin meeting within three months.
The President’s previous summit with Putin, held in Alaska in August, ended without a breakthrough, after which Trump adopted a tougher public tone toward Moscow.
Now, buoyed by his recent diplomatic success in halting the Gaza conflict, Trump appears keen to position himself as the broker of peace in Ukraine. “I’ve been played by the best of them,” he told reporters, “but I came out really well. I think that he [Putin] wants to make a deal. I made eight of them. I’m going to make a ninth.”
However, critics in Washington questioned his approach. Congressman Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump “failed to deliver today on providing any support for Ukraine,” adding, “This isn’t Trump bringing peace through strength; this is weakness through appeasement.”
The flurry of diplomacy underscores Trump’s ambition to reshape the global order — and perhaps his legacy — by ending one of Europe’s most intractable conflicts, even as sceptics warn of the risks of letting Moscow and Kyiv both “claim victory”.
