United States President Donald Trump yesterday backed away from tomorrow’s deadline for Ukraine to agree to a US-backed peace plan and shrugged off a report US negotiator Steve Witkoff coached the Russians on how to approach him on the topic.
Trump said US negotiators were making progress in discussions with Russia and Ukraine, and Moscow had agreed to some concessions. He did not detail them.
A US-based framework for ending the war, first reported last week, prompted fresh concerns the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted towards Moscow.
Trump said his envoy, Mr Witkoff, would be travelling to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who helped negotiate the Gaza deal that brought about an uneasy ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, was also involved.
In recent days, Trump had set the Thanksgiving holiday as the day when he wanted to see Ukraine agree to a deal to bring about an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. But he and his aides have backed away from a firm deadline and now say they would like an agreement as soon as possible.
"The deadline for me is when it’s over," Trump said
• Romanian and German Nato fighter jets were scrambled yesterday near Romania’s border with Ukraine to respond to a drone incursion that penetrated deeper than ever into Romanian airspace, in what Bucharest called a Russian provocation.
Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said the Nato pilots came close to shooting down a drone which had repeatedly entered the alliance member country’s airspace, but had held off over concern about causing damage on the ground.
Yesterday’s breach was the 13th Romania has reported into its airspace since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to being the deepest, it was also the first to take place during daylight, rather than at night.
