The president of the United States, Donald Trump, reiterated this Monday his perception that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, shows more interest than the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in closing a peace deal that puts an end to the war between both countries.
"I think that, in fact, Putin wants to make a deal more than Zelensky," the American president stated in remarks to the press before boarding his official helicopter heading to Ohio, where he was scheduled to participate in one of his campaign rallies ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.
Trump has insisted that both leaders must sit down face to face to stop what he has described as a "ridiculous war," referring to the sharp increase in military and civilian casualties in recent weeks. "That war has to end. They have lost 32,000 people, mostly young soldiers, just this last month," he emphasized.
When questioned about the accusations from Kiev regarding violations of the agreed ceasefire to stop attacks on energy facilities, the American president defended that both parties accepted the ceasefire and urged the Ukrainian government to prioritize negotiation. "What is happening is that he (Putin) wants to reach an agreement, and we have to get Zelensky to want to make a deal," he stressed.
In parallel, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Moscow this same Monday of having bombed gas production plants and service stations in Ukrainian territory overnight, against the ceasefire promoted by the White House. Zelensky denounced that "this is Putin's response to Trump," and has subordinated the end of Ukrainian long-range attacks to the Russian Army effectively stopping its bombings against Ukraine's energy system and critical infrastructure.
These frictions occur at the same time that the European Union has given the green light to its largest package of sanctions against the Russian military-industrial complex since the outbreak of the war in 2022, a battery of measures that affects more than 1,500 people and entities and that the Kiev government has celebrated as a "necessary signal to force the end of the war."