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Ukrainians are pessimistic of an imminent peace deal after a long-awaited phone call on Monday between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin failed to make any significant breakthroughs.
Residents in Kyiv were downbeat about the prospects of a peace deal before summer.
“(Peace) is possible closer to the autumn, not now, (Putin) will stall for time,” one Kyiv resident told Euronews, adding that the Russian war machine needed to be worn down further before peace could be attained.
Another resident of Kyiv expressed anger at the delay in the commencement of talks between Putin and Trump, saying the two leaders should have met shortly after the US president’s inauguration in January.
Trump, who said his call with Putin had gone “very well,” posted on Truth Social after the call to say that ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine would start “immediately.”
The phone calls came after a failed round of peace negotiations in Istanbul last week which saw Putin snub an invitation for face-to-face from Zelenskyy and instead send a lower-ranking delegation.
It was the first time both sides had formally met in person since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in early 2022.
Despite both agreeing to return 1,000 prisoners of war each, no common ground could be found on how to secure a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States and backed by Ukraine.
Zelenskyy accused the Kremlin of using appeals to the White House as a distraction, going on to reject Russian demands to remove Ukrainian forces from four partially occupied regions of Ukraine, among other requests.
“Ukraine won’t withdraw its troops from its own territories,” Zelensky told the media as he refused Russian demands to remove forces from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Earlier on Tuesday, Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday accused Russia of playing for time in peace talks over Ukraine rather than being genuinely interested in a ceasefire.
And the European Union said it intends to forge ahead with a new package of sanctions against Russia to exert greater pressure on Putin to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, despite the United States not doing so at this stage.
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