{"id":138077,"date":"2025-05-20T02:37:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-us-will-walk-away-from-ukraine-talks-if-putin-does-not-want-peace-trump-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T02:37:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:37:53","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-us-will-walk-away-from-ukraine-talks-if-putin-does-not-want-peace-trump-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-us-will-walk-away-from-ukraine-talks-if-putin-does-not-want-peace-trump-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: US will walk away from Ukraine talks if Putin does not want peace – Trump – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a high-level meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the US and EU countries could be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland. Follow the latest below and catch up with our last Ukraine Q&A.
Monday 19 May 2025 23:18, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
That’s all for our live coverage today, but we’ll be back with further updates and analysis tomorrow.
If you’re just checking in, here is a recap of the key developments today.
The UK Ministry of Defence says the Russian government “increasingly resembles a gerontocracy” – rule by the old.
The majority of its senior leaders are older than the average male life expectancy in Russia, 68, including Vladimir Putin himself, aged 72.
The appointment of elder allies based on long-term loyalty is “likely engendering dissatisfaction and frustration amongst the younger generation of ambitious potential leaders”, the MoD said.
“The Russian state increasingly resembles a gerontocracy; a form of rule in which the senior leaders are significantly older than most of the adult population.
“Putin has highly likely sought to keep close personal allies in positions of power to better ensure perceived regime stability, as well as his own survivability.”
The MoD highlighted the extension of former defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s military contract by five years until 2030, when he will turn 75.
“This also significantly undermines the effectiveness and efficiency of leadership decisions, which are likely made not by the most capable, but by those with the most longstanding acquiescence and commitment to, as well as deriving the most benefit from, Putin’s authoritarianism.”
Donald Trump denies the US is taking a step back from peace talks, minutes before threatening to do so.
Asked if his suggestion that the talks could take place at the Vatican meant the US was stepping away, he told reporters: “No, no, no, I think it would be great to have at the Vatican, perhaps it would have some extra significance.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, another reporter puts to him that he has not achieved the 30-day ceasefire he set out to achieve, to which he responds: “This was not my war, I’m just here to try and help.”
He says: “There’s big egos involved, but I think something’s going to happen, and if it doesn’t, I just back away and they’re going to have to keep going.
“This was a European situation, it should have remained a European situation.”
He says of Vladimir Putin: “I do believe he wants to end it.”
Asked if Putin proves to be the obstacle to peace, would further arms for Ukraine be on the table, the president says: “Well we’ll look, I mean we’re going to look. I hope that – I like to think positively, frankly.”
He adds: “My whole life is deals, one big deal, and if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out.”
He says he has a red line “in his head” but declines to say what it is.
There are indications that Donald Trump is starting to understand Vladimir Putin is dragging out peace talks, says former US ambassador to Ukraine William B Taylor.
He tells The World with Yalda Hakim<\/a> <\/b>that the US is “not going to walk away” despite JD Vance’s comments to that effect.
“It’s very clear that this administration, up until now, has made the resolution of the Russian war on Ukraine its top foreign policy priority. 
“It has clearly spent a whole lot of time.”
He said JD Vance “has guaranteed that he’s going to be engaged in this thing with the Pope”. 
“I believe there has been a shift in the United States’ position in favour of Ukraine after that discussion in the Vatican at the funeral.
“That has been and that was a turning point where the United States changed its view.”
European leaders need to step in to lead efforts to stop the war as the US appears to abandon its role, says former prime minister of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov.
“Trump has already accepted Putin’s way of thinking,” he told The World with Yalda Hakim.<\/a><\/b>
He said Europe as a whole should be worried about Putin’s ambitions.
“He believes he’s strong enough to continue this fight, to have a summer offensive. 
“He believes that by autumn, he will definitely destroy Ukraine and would have better positions.
“He also believes that he could divide and destroy trans-Atlantic unity – and today’s discussion with President Trump shows that Putin, to a certain extent, is right.”
The West’s failure to react meaningfully to his aggression against Georgia in 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 taught Putin he had a “special ticket” to act with impunity, explains Kasyanov.
“European leaders only now just came to the conclusion, understand who is Mr Putin about.
“That’s they’re so principled and that’s why they’re so consistent. The problem is with President Trump.”
Leaders in Europe and the US have welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s readiness to host Russia-Ukraine talks at the Vatican, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.
In a statement Meloni’s office said work was “under way” to immediately start negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
“In this regard, the Holy Father’s willingness to host the talks at the Vatican was considered positive. Italy is ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace,” the statement added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was debriefed on the US president’s call with Vladimir Putin alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (see post at 7.23pm).
By James Matthews<\/a>, US correspondent<\/b>
For the war that Donald Trump said he’d solve in a day, read the war he couldn’t solve at all. 
In posting on Truth Social that an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict will be negotiated between the two parties, the US president puts distance between himself and the deal he couldn’t seal. 
The US appears to be taking a step back from its stewardship of negotiations, as it leaves both sides to it.  
The broker broken? 
For Trump, certainly, this has been a most intractable negotiation that he has never looked like closing. 
He mentions “ceasefire” in his social media post only as a discussion for Russia and Ukraine, not as the call he made for an unconditional cessation of hostilities.
There’s no mention of the frustrations he once threatened at intensive Russian bombing, or of the sanctions he once threatened against Moscow. 
Far from it, he speaks of “largescale (sic) TRADE with the United States when this bloodbath is over”.
He adds that Ukraine can be a trade beneficiary from the country’s rebuilding. 
In Kyiv and allied European capitals, they were looking for strong-armed support from Washington.  
European leaders had called Trump the day before he spoke to Putin to discuss sanctions and to reinforce their need for US support in steering the Russian leader towards serious engagement.  They will be making further calls to the White House to clarify where they stand now, for fear they stand alone.  
Ukraine was never a pet project of Donald Trump.  In his ambitions to reshape the world order, restored relations with Russia has always been a prize as he eyes China as adversary-in-chief.  
In the bigger picture, Ukraine has always been a small feature.  It shows.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kyiv and its allies were considering arranging a high-level meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the US, EU countries and the UK as part of a push to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking after holding two phone calls with Donald Trump, the Ukrainian leader said the meeting could be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland. 
“We are considering a meeting of all teams at a high level,” he said. 
Zelenskyy said he spoke to Trump one-on-one on Monday before the US leader called Vladimir Putin, and again afterwards in a conversation that involved the leaders of France, Finland, Germany, Italy and the European Union.
The Ukrainian president said that during his first call with Trump he underlined the need for a ceasefire and sanctions on Russia as well as the importance of Kyiv’s allies not reaching agreements with Russia without Ukraine. 
“I am very focused, it is a challenging time for us now,” he said.
Zelenskyy said he expected Europe to announce a “strong” new package of sanctions on Russia, though he did not elaborate. 
He called on the US to sanction Russia’s banking and energy sectors to reduce the revenue for its military needs. 
He said he hoped that a major prisoner swap agreed in principle at the talks in Istanbul would happen in either days or weeks. 
Amnesty International says a ban imposed by Russia was an attempt to silence dissent but that the group would redouble efforts to expose Moscow’s human rights violations. 
This morning, Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said Amnesty had been dubbed an “undesirable organisation”, making sharing their reports punishable with jail time.
“This decision is part of the Russian government’s broader effort to silence dissent and isolate civil society,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“We will redouble our efforts to expose Russia’s egregious human rights violations both at home and abroad.” 
Amnesty is far from the first organisation to fall foul of Russian censorship, with the state’s list of “undesirable organisations” covering 223 entities.
These include US-funded broadcaster RFE\/RL and international environmental organisation Greenpeace.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has praised Donald Trump for what she calls “his tireless efforts” to bring about a ceasefire.
She said she was debriefed on the US president’s call with Vladimir Putin alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“It’s important that the US stays engaged,” she said.
“We will continue to support Volodymyr Zelenskyy to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine.”
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