{"id":613,"date":"2025-03-12T21:02:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/12\/trump-says-us-officials-on-way-to-moscow-for-ukraine-talks-bbc-com\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T21:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:02:38","slug":"trump-says-us-officials-on-way-to-moscow-for-ukraine-talks-bbc-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/12\/trump-says-us-officials-on-way-to-moscow-for-ukraine-talks-bbc-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US officials on way to Moscow for Ukraine talks &#8211; BBC.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"byline-new\" data-component=\"byline-block\">\n<p><span>Bernd Debusmann Jr<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>BBC News, White House<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p>US officials are headed to Russia to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, according to President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n<p>The news comes after Ukrainian officials agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following a highly anticipated meeting with American officials in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the &#8220;ball is truly in their [Russia&#8217;s] court&#8221; and that the US believes the only way to end the fighting is through peace negotiations. <\/p>\n<p>The Kremlin has said it is studying the ceasefire proposal, and that a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is possible. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p>Following the meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said it was now up to the US to convince Russia to agree to the &#8220;positive&#8221; proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking alongside Ireland&#8217;s Taoiseach &#8211; or Prime Minister &#8211; Miche\u00e1l Martin in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he had received  &#8220;positive messages&#8221; about the possibility of a ceasefire. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ce34zg70exxo\">UK helped Ukraine and US reach ceasefire deal &#8211; government sources<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cx2x5l8nv3mo\">US set to present 30-day ceasefire offer to Russia<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;But a positive message means nothing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is a very serious situation.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Trump did not specify what officials he was referring to. <\/p>\n<p>However, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that National Security Secretary Mike Waltz spoke to his Russian counterpart. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, a source familiar told the BBC that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would head to Moscow for negotiations following the talks in Jeddah. <\/p>\n<p>The White House confirmed the plans on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war,&#8221; Leavitt said. <\/p>\n<p>The Kremlin has said it is studying the proposed ceasefire and further details, which spokesman Dmitry Peskov said will come &#8220;via various channels&#8221; over the course of the next several days. <\/p>\n<p>In the Oval Office, Trump said that he believes a ceasefire would make sense for Russia, adding &#8211; without further details &#8211; that there is a &#8220;lot of downside to Russia&#8221; as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a very complex situation solved on one side. Pretty much solved. We&#8217;ve also discussed land and other things that go with it,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;We know the areas of land we&#8217;re talking about, whether it&#8217;s pull back or not pull back.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>To pressure Russia, Trump said that he &#8220;can do things financially&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That would be very bad for Russia,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to do that because I want to get peace.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The meeting in Jeddah was the first between US and Ukrainian officials since a 28 February meeting between Zelensky, Trump and Vice President JD Vance descended into a shouting match and, ultimately, a pause in US military assistance and intelligence sharing. <\/p>\n<p>The pause was lifted following the meeting in Jeddah, and Trump said that he believes that the &#8220;difficult&#8221; Ukrainian side and Zelensky now want peace. <\/p>\n<p>Even as negotiations over a potential ceasefire are ongoing, fighting has raged in Ukraine. <\/p>\n<p>Russian drones and missiles reportedly struck targets in Kryvyy Rih &#8211; Zelensky&#8217;s hometown &#8211; overnight, as well as in the port city of Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv. <\/p>\n<p>Clashes also continued in Russia&#8217;s Kursk region, where Peskov said Russian troops were &#8220;successfully advancing&#8221; and recapturing areas held by Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernd Debusmann Jr BBC News, White House US officials are headed to Russia to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, according to President Donald Trump. The news comes after Ukrainian officials agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following a highly anticipated meeting with American officials in Saudi Arabia. Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}