President Donald Trump of the United States said on Saturday that talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine may be going on well, stressing there is a point to either put up or shut up.
Trump stated this while speaking to reporters a day after he showed frustration with Russia and told it to “get moving” on reaching a deal.
“I think Ukraine-Russia might be going OK, and you’re going to be finding out pretty soon.
“There’s a point at which you just have to either put up or shut up and we'll see what happens, but I think it’s going fine,” Trump said.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the search for a peace deal.
The talks came at a time when US-Russia dialogue aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war appeared to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause in hostilities.
The US president has shown signs of losing patience and has spoken of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is dragging its feet on a deal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Saturday, hailed Trump for what he said was a better understanding of the Ukraine conflict than any other Western leader.
“When we speak about eliminating root causes of any conflict, including the Ukrainian conflict, this is the only way to resolve the problem and to establish long-lasting peace. Remove root causes,” Lavrov said.
Putin, who launched Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has long cast Ukraine's tilt to the West, including its desire to join NATO, as a threat to Russia.
