US President Donald Trump has claimed that a deal between Russia and Ukraine is close after he met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, at the White House.
“I think we’re going to be very close to settling Russia-Ukraine,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
"It's going to be a big agreement, and it's going to involve more than Ukraine. I could even say it might involve all of Europe. Is it going to be a big, beautiful agreement, and everyone's going to be thrilled," Trump added.
Trump has previously predicted that a truce was on the way. However, in recent week there have been some developments.
Representatives from both Kyiv and Moscow attended the meeting at the White House, hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, as they honoured her work brokering a ceasefire .
The first lady had helped broker a localised six-day truce in the southern city of Oleshky after hosting a diplomatic gathering in October. The US president had not attended the event.
The ceasefire ran from October 27 to November 1 and allowed humanitarian aid to the region and saw nearly 800 evacuated.
In September trump said that the First lady learned for the humanitarian crisis in the southern city in September and got involved as an exclusive intermediary.
Thursday’s meeting was attended by Senior officials from both countries, including Dmitriev; Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner; David Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People party in Ukraine’s parliament; and Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner.
The White House said that the it was “the first time in American history that a First Lady has personally brought representatives of two nations at war to the White House for diplomacy”.
A US delegation is set to mediate talks in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November between representatives from both countries.
UK prime minister Andy Burnham meanwhile said that Putin will not be invited to the G20 summit. In September, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Washington invited Putin to the G20 meet in Miami in December. Burnham’s latest statement marks a break with Trump.
