US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, November 5, that a deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine is "very close", predicting an agreement so broad that it could involve the whole of Europe — his most optimistic public claim yet about the peace push, made hours after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House.
Source: QNC News
"It is a bloodbath, and it has to end," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I think we're going to get it ended pretty soon, very soon, maybe."
Source: QNC News
"It's going to be an agreement. It's going to be a big agreement, and it's going to involve more than Ukraine," he said. "I could even say it might involve all of Europe. It's going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone's going to be thrilled."
Source: 360 Live News
Trump's remarks came after Thursday's White House event at which First Lady Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials over the Oleshky ceasefire, and Putin's envoy Dmitriev thanked her and relayed Putin's thanks. Read: Melania Trump hosts Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House
Trump confirmed that he had met Dmitriev — who also heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund — but declined to say what the two men discussed. He added that he did not meet the Ukrainian delegation on Thursday.
Asked whether he had raised Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Trump said he always raised that subject, and that he raised it in the other direction as well, according to the reports.
What happens next: Abu Dhabi, November 10-11
The remarks come ahead of US-mediated working-level talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11, where the United States is to bring together delegations from Ukraine and Russia to discuss ending the war, post-war security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian measures. The American delegation is to be led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Putin agreed to the new round of talks after meeting Witkoff in St Petersburg about two weeks earlier. American negotiators were also expected in Brussels this week for consultations with France, Germany, Britain, the EU and NATO on the security guarantees Ukraine might receive under a future agreement.
The gap between the claim and the battlefield
No comprehensive ceasefire has been announced, and fighting continues across multiple areas of Ukraine as preparations for the talks move forward. Russia and Ukraine remain sharply divided over territory, security guarantees and the conditions under which hostilities could end, and Trump gave no details of the agreement he predicted — no terms, no participants beyond the Abu Dhabi format, and no explanation of what an arrangement involving "all of Europe" would mean in practice.
For readers in Punjab and the diaspora, the stakes are practical as well as diplomatic: the Ukraine war, together with the US-Iran war, has driven fuel and food prices worldwide this year, and any credible move toward a settlement would be felt at petrol pumps and in grain markets far beyond Europe.