US President Donald Trump has said he is scaling up pressure on Russia to end the nearly four-year-war in Ukraine.
"We're stepping it up together. We're all stepping it up. NATO has been great," Trump said in the White House during the meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Thursday. Stubb said he believed that Trump would be able to reach a peace deal on Ukraine following the Gaza deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by the US president this week. "I think this one will be the next big one," Stubb told reporters.
Trump has repeatedly said the deal to end the war in Ukraine has proven to be harder to solve. Trump had made ending the Russian-Ukrainian war his pre-election campaign but has failed to achieve any breakthrough despite his efforts that also included hosting Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that momentum towards reaching a peace deal in Ukraine had largely vanished following the meeting. “Unfortunately, we must admit that the powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favor of agreements has largely gone,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
Last month Trump suggested that Ukraine could regain territories lost to Russia since the country’s full-fledged invasion in February 2022 in a major shift of rhetoric. The US president also called Russia a “paper tiger” for the Russian army’s failure to make considerable gains on the frontline.
