Trump Insists the Ceasefire He Announced Is Holding
Asked how he knew Moscow and Kyiv had signed up, the president said: “Well, they agreed, because I said, ‘You agree’.” Pressed on continued Russian strikes, he said there had been “violations on both sides”. The Kremlin has still not said whether it agreed to anything at all.
Pressed on why neither capital had committed to the deal, Mr Trump indicated he had known when he announced it on Sunday that he did not yet have agreement from either side. Asked whether he was aware Russia had already violated it, he said: “I’m not sure about that.” Dmitry Peskov’s formula at his daily briefing was unchanged from Monday: “Contacts are continuing. As soon as we have anything to say about this, we will definitely inform you.” Kyiv says it learned of the ceasefire from news reports with no advance warning, and remains open to a mutual energy truce if Moscow accepts one. Volodymyr Zelensky’s summary of his own attempts was blunt: Ukraine has proposed many de-escalatory steps and “Putin had one answer to all of them — nyet”. The president also claimed, without evidence, that at least 32,000 people had been killed this month alone, and said the two leaders “have to get together and end that ridiculous war”. The announcement came two days after Washington eased sanctions to let Russian diesel reach global markets.