No Firm Deadline for Conclusion of Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal: Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Nov. 25 there is no firm deadline for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, adding that the deadline is “when it’s over.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Florida for Thanksgiving, Trump said U.S. negotiators were making progress with Russia and Ukraine, and that Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff would be heading to Moscow, possibly next week.

When asked whether a new deadline for a deal had been reached, after the president earlier signaled a Thanksgiving target date, Trump said, “I don’t have a deadline. You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over. I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment.”

Trump had earlier suggested Nov. 27 as a possible deadline for the two countries to reach an agreement on ending the war.

“I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” the president said during a Nov. 21 interview on Brian Kilmeade’s radio program. “But Thursday … we think is an appropriate time.”

The Trump administration confirmed on Nov. 20 that it had been working on a 28-point peace plan to settle the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Drafts of the proposal—crafted by Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—would require Ukraine to cede Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, freeze front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, permanently renounce NATO membership, and cap its armed forces at 600,000 troops. In exchange, sanctions on Russia would be lifted in phases, and Moscow would be reintegrated into the global economy, including an eventual return to the G8.

The initial roadmap received a mixed reception from European leaders, U.S. lawmakers, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A U.S. delegation met with Ukrainian officials in Geneva on Nov. 23, with the White House subsequently issuing a statement saying that the involved parties “drafted an updated and refined peace framework.”

“Ukraine and the United States agreed to continue intensive work on joint proposals in the coming days. They will also remain in close contact with their European partners as the process advances,” the White House stated.

Following the Geneva talks, Zelenskyy said in a Nov. 24 post on X that the parties had cut down the number of points in the peace proposal from the original 28 and that “many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework.”

War Could Go On ‘For Years’

The U.S. president has been keen to negotiate an end to the war, which started on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian forces invaded eastern Ukraine.

Trump said on Nov. 25 that he initially thought it would be easier to resolve.

“We settled eight wars, and I thought this would be one of the easier ones because of my relationship with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin. But this is probably one of the more difficult ones. There’s a lot of hatred. This war could go on for years,” Trump said.

He also suggested that Kyiv would be unable to withstand a more prolonged war, given the disparity in size between Russia’s and Ukraine’s populations.

“Russia’s got a lot more people, got a lot more soldiers. I think if Ukraine can make a deal, it’s a good thing. I think it’s great for both. Frankly, I think it’s great for both,” he said.

“But Ukraine is much smaller. It has a much smaller group of people. They’ve lost a lot of people, Russia’s lost a lot of people. But Russia has a much bigger pool of people.”

Ryan Morgan and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.