Trump Awaits Russian Response on Ceasefire This Week

US President Donald Trump says that Russia will send Washington a response to a ceasefire proposal in Ukraine this week. He said this at the White House during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on 17 April.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to European Pravda.

Trump was asked at what point he would decide whether Russia was ready for a ceasefire and, if necessary, increase sanctions against it.

‘We'll see how it goes. We'll get a response from them this week, very soon, and we'll see,’ the US president replied.

He also reiterated that he wants ‘the death and killing to stop’.

At the beginning of the month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US would soon know whether Russia was committed to peace.

This followed numerous instances of Russia's violations of the so-called partial ceasefire, which Russia and Ukraine had separately agreed on with the United States.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected the US to tighten sanctions against Russia in response to its refusal to cease fire.

According to Reuters, senior Trump administration officials have in recent days begun to acknowledge that the US may not be able to reach a peace deal on Ukraine in the next few months.

As The Gaze reported earlier, during its visit to France on 17 April, the Ukrainian delegation held its first multilateral meeting with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing’ at the Elysee Palace.

The parties exchanged views on further steps to bring about a sustainable and lasting peace, including the implementation of a full ceasefire, the deployment of a multinational military contingent to provide security, and the development of an effective security architecture for Ukraine.