U.S. President Donald Trump signalled on Tuesday that he was no longer insisting on a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept a U.S.-supported peace proposal, saying: "the deadline for me is when it's over."
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travelled to Florida for the Thanksgiving break, Trump said talks involving U.S., Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were moving forward and that Moscow had agreed to certain concessions.
He did not specify what they were, according to The Economic Times.
A U.S.-drafted outline for ending the conflict, reported last week, raised fresh fears that Washington could push Kyiv toward an agreement viewed as too favourable to Moscow.
Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff would soon head to Moscow for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added that his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had helped broker the Gaza arrangement that led to a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, was also taking part.
In recent days Trump had pointed to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday as the moment he hoped to see Ukraine accept a deal to draw the war to a close.
However, both he and his advisers have since stepped back from a fixed date, instead saying they want an agreement achieved as quickly as possible.
Trump suggested the battlefield situation now favoured Russia and argued it would be in Ukraine’s interests to reach a settlement.
He said some areas of Ukrainian territory "might be gotten by Russia anyway" in the coming months.
He also said that security guarantees for Ukraine were being worked through with European partners.
