Trump meets Russian envoy and says Russia-Ukraine deal is close
US President Donald Trump said a broad agreement to end the Russia-Ukraine war could be close after meeting Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, at the White House. Trump offered no details about their discussion, but said the eventual deal would be “a big agreement” involving more than Ukraine and potentially “all of Europe”. He also said he had not met the Ukrainian delegation that day.
The meeting followed a White House diplomatic event hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, who brought Russian and Ukrainian representatives together to build on a temporary humanitarian truce in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine’s Kherson region. The six-day ceasefire, which ran from October 27 to November 1, enabled nearly 800 civilians to leave the besieged city and allowed food and medical supplies to be delivered.
The event included Dmitriev, Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, David Arakhamia of Ukraine’s Servant of the People party, and Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets. Melania Trump urged the participants to turn the local truce into something more lasting and gave Putin’s and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s representatives letters for their leaders. She received a painting from an 11-year-old girl and Ukraine’s Order of Princess Olga in recognition of her role in arranging the ceasefire.
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