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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Friday his administration had “productive” talks with Russia about a ceasefire in Ukraine, urging counterpart Vladimir Putin to spare Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin late Thursday to lay out the details of a joint US-Ukrainian plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv after three years of war.
“We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified to reporters that Trump had not spoken to Putin himself on Thursday.
The Kremlin said earlier it was “cautiously optimistic” a deal could be reached, but that Trump and Putin needed to speak directly before talks could progress.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of trying to “sabotage diplomacy” after the Russian leader said he had “serious questions” over how a ceasefire would work.
“He is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
Trump also appealed to Putin over what he said were “thousands” of Ukrainian troops who were “completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position.”
“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” he said.
Kyiv quickly denied Trump’s claim, saying there was “no threat” of its troops being encircled.
Russia has in the past week been driving much of Ukraine’s forces out of its Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv occupied last year.
The Kremlin said both Moscow and Washington understood a direct conversation between Putin and Trump “was needed.”
“When Mr.Witkoff brings all the information to President Trump, we will determine the timing of a conversation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview that the US had “some cautious optimism” after Witkoff’s visit.
Commenting on Waltz’s remarks, Peskov said Friday: “There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.”
“There is still much to be done, but the president has nevertheless identified with President Trump’s position.”
Putin said Thursday he backed the idea of a truce with Ukraine, but said he had “serious questions” about how it would be implemented that he wanted to discuss with Trump.
The Russian leader said he wanted any settlement to secure “long-term peace,” alluding to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine be barred from NATO.
Zelensky has called Putin’s ambivalent response a “very manipulative,” while Germany called it a “delaying tactic.”
The ceasefire proposal comes amid a rapid Russian counteroffensive in its western Kursk region.
Moscow has driven much of Kyiv’s forces out of its Kursk province, and has been advancing across the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region for the past year.
Ukraine hoped its hold on the territory would be one of its few bargaining chips in talks with Russia and was eyeing a potential land swap with Moscow, which has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.
Ukraine now risks losing its grip on the border region entirely, denying it this point of leverage.
Russia claims its troops have also crossed into Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region, from where Kyiv launched the shock incursion last August.
Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian border guard service, told Ukrainian state media that Russian forces were trying to enter Sumy.
“We continue to detect attempts by small assault groups to enter our territory and approach our border,” he said.
In the skies, Ukraine and Russia exchanged drone fire on Friday, but it was less intense compared to previous days.

KYIV: An unknown gunman shot dead on Friday a prominent anti-Russian activist in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s law enforcement authorities said.
They did not name the 31-year-old victim but Ukrainian media said it was Demian Hanul, a blogger who took part in the 2014 Maidan revolution against Ukraine’s then pro-Russian president and was once a member of the radical far-right Right Sector group.
“The incident is qualified as a premeditated murder committed by order,” the national police said on the Telegram messaging app.
Also posted on the local Telegram channel was a video clip claiming to capture the moment of the shooting. It showed a burly man holding a gun to the head of a man lying on a pavement, possibly already dead, firing, and then walking away.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the clip.
Ukraine’s interior minister said he had received “specific clues” to help track down the suspect and that the head of the national police was heading to Odesa to lead the investigation.
Russian state media has previously branded Hanul “a neo-Nazi responsible for the arson attack on the Trade Union House in Odessa,” a reference to deadly fighting between pro-Russian activists and supporters of Ukrainian unity in May 2014.
A Moscow court charged Hanul in absentia in April 2024 with several crimes including damaging Soviet-era war monuments for which he would have faced up to 20 years in prison.
Several media outlets reported last July that Hanul had requested Ukrainian police protection after receiving threats.