Trump says Zelenskyy ‘isn’t ready’ to accept peace plan for Russia-Ukraine war

President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isnt ready to sign off on a USauthored peace proposal aimed at ending the RussiaUkraine warTrump was critical of Zelenskyy after US and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the US administrations proposal But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forwardIm a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasnt yet read the proposal that was as of a few hours ago His people love it but he hasnt Trump claimed in an exchange with reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Centre Honours The president added Russia is I believe fine with it but Im not sure that Zelenskyys fine with it His people love it it But he isnt readyTo be certain Russian President Vladimir Putin hasnt publicly expressed approval for the White House plan In fact Putin last week had said that aspects of Trumps proposal were unworkable even though the original draft heavily favoured MoscowTrump has had a hotandcold relationship with Zelenskyy since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of US taxpayer money Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly fouryear conflict he says has cost far too many livesZelenskyy said Saturday he had a substantive phone call with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talksUkraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace Zelenskyy wrote on social media Trumps criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administrations new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russias Tass news agencyDmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document which spells out the administrations core foreign policy interests was largely in line with Moscows vision There are statements there against confrontation and in favour of dialogue and building good relations he said adding that Russia hopes this would lead to further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlementThe document released Friday by the White House said the US wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core US interest to reestablish strategic stability with RussiaSpeaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum Trumps outgoing Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said efforts to end the war were in the last 10 metres He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of terrain primarily the Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power PlantRussia controls most of Donbas its name for the Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk regions which along with two southern regions it illegally annexed three years ago The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscows invasion of Ukraine and is not in service It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidentsKellogg who is due to leave his post in January was not present at the talks in Florida Separately officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday As the three days of talks wrapped up Russian missile drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in UkraineA man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraines northern Chernihiv region Saturday night local officials said while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraines biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hubKyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter in what Ukrainian officials call weaponizing the cold Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraines Kharkiv region according to the regional prosecutors officeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever