Russia celebrates as US ‘letting us attack Ukraine’ – ‘Trump is ours’ | World | News
Russian pundits said “the United States is letting us attack Ukraine” during a state TV programme.
Dmitry Novikov, a leading researcher at the Centre for Central Asian Studies, said for Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky, “any territorial concession would be a political suicide” when talking about the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Then he added: “I get an impression that Americans are simply waiting. They have given us an opportunity. ‘Go ahead and take it. We won’t help you, you are not our allies, but we won’t really get in your way either.’ This option suits us well.”
Another speaker suggested that Donald Trump‘s Board of Peace “resembles a board of directors with Trump as its chairman” with “great directors and weak ones”. During the TV programme, it was also suggested that Trump’s board “is a board to unfreeze our [Russian] assets”. The speaker also added, “As of this week, Trump is ours again.”
The Kremlin insisted that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but never fully captured. Earlier this week, the three-way talks come hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the settlement in Ukraine with Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon overnight talks.
Giving an update on those talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukrainian diplomatic team reports almost every hour from the UAE, where a conversation took place today involving the Ukrainian, American, and Russian delegations. They are discussing the parameters for ending the war. By now, our team should already have at least some answers from Russia. The key is that Russia must be ready to end the war it started. Ukraine’s positions are clear. I have defined the framework for dialogue for our delegation.”
Territorial disputes remain the main obstacle in negotiations – particularly in the eastern Donbas region. Vladimir Putin has insisted that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the remaining parts of Donetsk that Kyiv still controls, despite Russia failing to fully capture the area during years of fighting.
However, Zelensky has refused to give up any land, with analysts and polls suggesting little public support in Ukraine for territorial concessions. The Kremlin has said that full control of Donbas remains a “very important condition” for peace.
He described the two-day Abu Dhabi summit as “a step – hopefully towards ending the war”, but warned that many possible outcomes remained.
