US President Donald Trump said he plans to focus on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, now that phase one of his Gaza ceasefire deal is its final stages.
Monday saw Hamas release all 20 living Israeli hostages while Israel freed almost 2,000 Palestinians that had been held in its prisons. This after both sides agreed to end hostilities on 10 October.
A possible ceasefire for Ukraine and the next steps will likely be discussed at a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump on Friday in Washington, as confirmed by Ukraine’s president.
“I think we need to discuss the sequence of steps that I want to propose to President (Trump),” Zelenskyy told journalists on Monday.
Addressing the Israeli parliament on Monday, Trump said his peacemaking efforts are not done yet and next he wants to get Russia to end its war against Ukraine.
“It would be great if we could make a peace deal with (Iran),” Trump said in his triumphant address at the Knesset, adding. “First, we have to get Russia done.”
“Let’s focus on Russia first.”
Trump has been trying to broker a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine for months but his efforts remain stalled with the Kremlin rejecting the idea of direct negotiations with Zelenskyy, even with the participation of Trump as mediator.
“Even Hamas shows deal-making acumen, but not Putin,” said Zelenskyy.
Moscow officials have repeatedly refused to participate in any negotiations with the Ukrainian leadership, only agreeing to a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August.
But the US president’s Gaza peace plan and the return of the Israeli hostages has given new hope to Kyiv.
“When peace is achieved for one part of the world, it brings more hope for peace in other regions where life is still under threat,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday, adding that Ukraine welcomes “all the efforts that have led to today’s outcome for the Middle East.”
“The hostages have been freed, and the war in Gaza is coming to an end. This is truly an extraordinary event.”
“We are working so that the day of peace comes for Ukraine as well,” Zelenskyy said congratulating Trump over his “leadership and determination” which “have worked.”
“Russian aggression remains the last global source of destabilisation and if a ceasefire and peace have been achieved for the Middle East, the leadership and determination of global actors can certainly work for us too, in Ukraine, in Europe. And it can be done.”
Common denominator in peace talks
What the two US-led peace processes have in common is not only Washington’s leadership and initiative, but also Trump’s special envoy.
Addressing the Israeli Knesset on Monday, Trump singled out Steve Witkoff, who has also attempted to negotiate a peace deal with Moscow and met Putin multiple times.
Trump told a story how he called Witkoff half an hour into one of his meetings with Russia’s president, expecting it to be over. However, he was told it was still ongoing.
“In five hours, he came out. I said, ‘What the hell were you talking about for five hours?’ And he says, ‘just a lot of interesting things.’ But you can’t talk about it for five (hours),” Trump said.
Trump added that at the time, Witkoff “had no idea about Russia, had no idea about Putin too much, didn’t know too much about politics,” but had “that quality” the US president was looking for.
Another possible common denominator in Trump’s approach to the Gaza ceasefire deal and his efforts to put an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine is the concept of “peace through strength,” which the US president repeatedly spoke about in his Knesset address.
Zelenskyy has insisted on this concept and its implementation in forcing Russia to stop its war against Ukraine and plans to discuss it with Trump on Friday.
The meeting, the fifth between Trump and Zelenskyy since the US president returned to office in January, will follow two phone calls the leaders had over the past few days regarding Ukraine’s air defences and long-range capabilities amid Russia’s attack against on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
But the calls “were not enough” to discuss all key topics, Zelenskyy said.
Recently Trump has voiced the possibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, long-range cruise missiles capable of striking targets at a range of 1,600 to 2,500 kilometres.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “the topic of Tomahawks is of extreme concern” to Moscow.
“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he said in remarks carried by Russian state media.