President Donald Trump’s endurance is being examined by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched a barrage of airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital metropolis of Kyiv, killing 12 individuals and injuring almost 100 extra this week, sooner or later forward of Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff’s fourth go to to Moscow.
Trump advised reporters Friday he believes it’s “potential” and even “very possible” his administration will negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
“I believe, in the long run, we will find yourself with a number of good offers, together with tariff offers and commerce offers. We’ll make our nation wealthy,” Trump stated forward of his departure for Rome. “We’ll attempt to get out of conflict in order that we are able to save 5,000 individuals per week. That is what my intention is.”

Steve Witkoff meets with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg (Reuters )
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Trump repeated that he has no deadline for a deal, solely that one should be ironed out “as quick as potential.”
He made his feedback one week after the U.S. threatened to abandon talks if Russia and Ukraine didn’t quickly attain a deal and sooner or later after Trump issued a direct message to Putin on social media to “cease” bombing Ukraine.
“I’m not proud of the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not obligatory, and really dangerous timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 troopers per week are dying. Let’s get the peace deal DONE,” he wrote.
Trump additionally conceded that his repeated claims from the marketing campaign path that he would have the conflict in Ukraine stopped inside 24 hours of taking workplace weren’t based mostly on life like targets however had been “figurative.”
“I stated that as an exaggeration,” he advised reporters, once more blaming the conflict on his predecessor, President Biden.

The Friday, April 25, 2025, entrance web page of the New York Submit reacted to President Donald Trump telling Russian President Vladimir Putin to “cease” bombing Ukraine. (New York Submit)
However it seems Trump’s verbal warnings to Putin have fallen on deaf ears, much like the outcomes of Biden’s verbal warnings. Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of being partly at fault for the conflict, although he has not defined why.
Former Moscow CIA Station Chief Dan Hoffman stated he and different safety specialists repeatedly warned that, underneath the Biden administration, Ukraine was not sufficiently armed to adequately tackle Russia.
“After failing to discourage Putin’s invasion, the Biden administration simply stored Ukraine within the battle however did not give Ukraine an opportunity to punch again quick sufficient or arduous sufficient,” he stated.
“There are three choices,” Hoffman added, explaining how the U.S. can use its place as leverage over Moscow. “One, entice Russia. That is what Trump is making an attempt to do with commerce offers and eliminating sanctions. And Putin has type of plowed by that by rejecting confidence-building ceasefire offers.
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“The second possibility is to make Putin pay on the battlefield in order that he feels a lot ache he has to cease the invasion,” he added. “We persuade Putin that we will rearm Ukraine by saying, ‘We have supplied you a terrific deal. You don’t need the deal, we will arm the Ukrainians.
“The third possibility is to only stroll away and let Europe fend for themselves and assist Ukraine as a lot as they will. We might run the chance that Russia would take extra territory from Ukraine. That may be a victory for Russia and its allies – China, North Korea and Iran.
“Allow them to do it, and you then’ll pay the worth in every single place else on the planet,” Hoffman warned, referring to China’s threats towards Taiwan. “People do not wish to battle wars. OK, we do not wish to lose wars both.”

Ukrainian searchers clear rubble after a Russian ballistic missile assault in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 24, 2025. (AP Picture/Efrem Lukatsky)
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An official with information of the talks advised Fox Information Digital Friday that “Ambassador Witkoff is in Russia to fulfill with President Putin as a part of President Trump’s efforts to make peace.
“It is long gone time for the loss of life and destruction to cease, to maneuver previous the failed methods of the previous and for an finish to this devastating battle,” the official added with out commenting on the “substance of negotiations.”
A report by Axios this week recommended the White Home had prolonged a “ultimate supply” to Ukraine and Russia that referred to as on Kyiv to acknowledge Russia’s occupation of almost all of the Luhansk area and the occupied areas of the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas.
It additionally stated the U.S. would agree to acknowledge Crimea, which Putin illegally seized from Ukraine in 2014, as now legally part of Russia, and that Washington would lift sanctions.

A lady with two kids cries close to a makeshift memorial on a playground whereas honoring the reminiscence of a Russian missile strike’s victims April 6, 2025, in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Mykola Domashov/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/World Photos Ukraine through Getty Photos)
Neither the White Home nor the Nationwide Safety Council responded to Fox Information Digital’s repeated questions on whether or not there shall be penalties for Putin ought to he fail to enter into an settlement with Ukraine.
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The administration additionally didn’t touch upon why it believes Putin needs to enter into an settlement with the U.S. when safety officers have repeatedly warned in any other case.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already stated he’ll not acknowledge Crimea as part of Russia however somewhat as Ukrainian land illegally occupied by Russia.
Zelenskyy additionally on Thursday posted a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s first-term Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, which stated, “No nation can change the borders of one other by drive” in a transfer to indicate Trump’s obvious place change that now favors Russia.
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