United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that there is “a good chance” that Russia and Ukraine will reach a ceasefire agreement in the conflict between the two countries, which has lasted more than three years.
During a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One returning to Washington after the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said Kiev has “a little bit of a problem” with corruption. Last Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced the resignation of his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who was also his main negotiator in talks with the US. Yermak was targeted by anti-corruption investigators.
“Ukraine has some little difficulties, little problems. I think Russia would like to see an end to them and I know Ukraine would too,” Trump declared. Asked what types of problems these would be, the Republican replied that “there is a situation of corruption occurring, which does not help”.
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But, according to him, what happened does not represent an obstacle to negotiations around Washington’s peace proposal for Kiev. “I said this has been going on for three years, right? I was way ahead of schedule. But I think there’s a good chance we can get a deal done,” he pointed out.
This Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, met with a Ukrainian delegation in West Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss the plan. After the meeting, which lasted four hours, Rubio classified the conversation as productive, but considered that there is still work to be done to reach a final result.
