US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that talks with Russia and Ukraine on a peace deal were ‘very well advanced’ and credited Russia for its actions in the talks, as he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House.
Russian and US teams held six hours of talks in Turkey on Thursday to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies, and Vladimir Putin said initial contacts with Donald Trump’s new administration had inspired hope.
Putin on Thursday warned “Western elites” against trying to sabotage a potential rapprochement between Russia and the US, saying Moscow would use its diplomats and intelligence services to thwart such efforts.
Trump says talks on Ukraine advanced, Russia ‘acting well’
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that talks with Russia and Ukraine on a peace deal were “very well advanced” and credited Russia for its actions in the talks, as he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House.
Sitting alongside Starmer in the Oval Office, Trump said he thought a peace deal reached with Russia would hold and that he did not think Putin would invade Ukraine again.
“I think Russia has been acting very well. I think we’re very well advanced on the deal, but we have not made a deal yet,” Trump said, adding that he would not talk about the details of peacekeeping until a deal was agreed.
When asked if Putin could be trusted, Trump replied: “Trust and verify.”
Starmer thanked Trump for “changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that we can have a peace deal”.
Starmer was the second European leader to meet Trump this week after French President Emmanuel Macron came to the White House on Monday for a friendly encounter that nonetheless displayed stark differences about Russia’s war with Ukraine and the US push for a quick ceasefire.
“We’ll be discussing Russia-Ukraine, we’ll be discussing trade,” said Trump, who also accepted an invitation for a state visit to Britain in the near future.
Starmer, meanwhile, expressed optimism about a Ukraine peace deal.
Russia and US hold talks, Putin says contacts inspire hope
Russian and US teams held six hours of talks in Turkey on Thursday to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said initial contacts with Trump’s new administration had inspired hope.
The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other’s diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries’ ability to reset wider relations, amid a Trump administration outreach effort that has alarmed Washington’s European allies and Kyiv.
The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022.
But Trump, who has promised a quick end to the war, has upended US policy swiftly to open talks with Moscow, beginning with a phone call to Putin on 12 February and a high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.
Russian state news agency Tass said Thursday’s talks, held at the gated residence of the US consul general in Istanbul, wrapped up after some six hours without any statements to the press.
Ukraine and its European allies are worried that Trump’s rapid rapprochement with Moscow could lead to a deal on ending the war that sidelines them and undermines their security. Trump says he wants to end the bloodshed with an early ceasefire.
Putin this week tempered expectations of a quick deal, saying trust between Russia and the US had to be rebuilt before anything could be achieved.
But in televised comments to members of the FSB security service on Thursday, he said: “I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes.
“There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world’s security architecture.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Istanbul talks were expected to be the first in a series of contacts aimed at building confidence and removing “irritants” in bilateral relations.
In an example of judicial cooperation, the office of Russia’s prosecutor-general said Dmitry Koshelev, wanted by Moscow on suspicion of stealing $1.5-million from a courier at gunpoint in 2014, was being deported from the US on Thursday.
Russia and the US have expelled diplomats and limited the appointment of new staff at each other’s missions in tit-for-tat measures over the past decade, leaving their embassies thinly staffed.
The US State Department said Thursday’s talks would cover issues such as staffing levels, visas and diplomatic banking.
“To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not on the agenda,” said a State Department spokesperson before the meeting.
Both sides see potential for lucrative business ventures. Putin said this week that Moscow would be ready to invite the US to enter joint projects to mine rare earth deposits in Russia and the parts of Ukraine that it has claimed as its own.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there could be joint development of natural resources in the Arctic, though there were no substantive talks on this yet.
The US delegation in Istanbul was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, and the Russian team by Alexander Darchiyev, head of the foreign ministry’s North America department. Darchiyev is seen as front-runner to be Russia’s next ambassador to the US, a post now vacant.
Putin warns Europe against sabotaging US-Russia rapprochement
Putin on Thursday warned “Western elites” against trying to sabotage a potential rapprochement between Russia and the US, saying Moscow would use its diplomats and intelligence services to thwart such efforts.
Addressing Russia’s FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB and an agency he once led, Putin said he was pleased with the way an attempted reboot in ties between Moscow and Washington was progressing, even though it was early days.
But Putin said it was clear that not all countries were in favour of the idea of warmer ties between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.
“We understand that not everyone is happy with the resumption of Russian-American contacts. Some Western elites are still determined to maintain instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun,” said Putin.
“We need to be aware of this and use all possibilities when it comes to diplomacy and our intelligence services to disrupt such attempts.”
He did not spell out who he had in mind. But his comments looked like a reference to the European Union and Britain, which have raised concerns about the prospect of any Russia-US talks to end the war in Ukraine that do not have Kyiv and the EU at the negotiating table and are too soft on Moscow.
In other parts of his speech, Putin told FSB chiefs that cyber attacks against Russia were on the rise and that Moscow had to strengthen its counter-intelligence efforts.
He also called on the FSB to continue its work against “international terrorism” and to put special effort into preventative measures when it came to protecting military, industrial, transport and energy infrastructure.
Putin, who said he still hoped it would be possible to create what he called a more balanced European and global security system, said he believed that the West itself was now in the midst of a serious crisis.
“You and I can see it,” he told the FSB. “They have begun to destroy Western society itself from within. This is evidenced by the problems in the economies of many Western countries and in their domestic politics.”
Zelensky meets Irish PM on way to Trump visit
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin during a brief stop off in Ireland on Thursday on his way to a key meeting with Trump in Washington.
Trump has said Zelensky would visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare earth minerals, while the Ukrainian leader said the success of the deal would hinge on those talks and continued US aid.
Zelensky thanked Martin for his support and the Irish people for the shelter they have provided Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion in 2022 in brief remarks while the pair met at Shannon airport, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported.
Martin said the leaders had a “warm” meeting during which they discussed Macron’s visit to Washington this week and the need for Europe to be “centrally involved” in any peace settlement.
“I think he has a very clear focus, he’s very clear in his own head in terms of where he wants to take this and he wants to engage, obviously, particularly with President Trump. He values very much the support he has received from the United States, a very strong partner to Ukraine,” Martin told reporters.
“Suffice to say that President Zelensky is very focused on the need for Europe to be centrally involved in the wider potential peace settlement that could unfold in the time ahead,” Martin added.
Ukraine’s army chief visits eastern front heavily under pressure by Russia
Ukraine’s top commander said on Thursday he had visited brigades defending the Novopavlivka front in the eastern Donetsk region where Russia has stepped up its assaults.
“The enemy is conducting intense offensive actions in this area, trying to break through the defences of our troops and capture three settlements,” wrote Oleksandr Syrskyi, chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, on Facebook.
Syrskyi did not say when or which part of the front he had visited.
Ukraine’s military reported 19 combat engagements on the Novopavlivka front in the past day near the villages of Kostyantynopil, Rozdolne, Shevchenko and Burlatske.
The area near the villages where clashes took place has lithium and rare earth deposits, according to the Ukrainian Geological Survey.
Control of Ukraine’s large deposits of critical minerals has come into sharp focus this month after Trump expressed interest in gaining access to them.
Parts of the Novopavlivka front are around 14km from the Dnipropetrovsk region which Russia has been trying to reach to take full control of the Donetsk region as part of its stated war aims.
“The plan of the Russian occupiers in these areas has remained unchanged for more than three years, namely, to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk region,” said Syrskyi.
Through relentless assaults that Kyiv says have involved heavy casualties, Russian forces have reached around 4.5km from the Dnipropetrovsk region at the closest point of a frontline that sprawls across hundreds of kilometres. DM