When asked by reporters if it was his \u201cfinal offer to Ukraine\u201d, Trump replied: \u201cNo\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get it ended. One way or the other, we have to get it ended,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump said of Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: \u201cHe\u2019ll have to like it, and if he doesn\u2019t like it, then you know, they should just keep fighting. At some point he\u2019s going to have to accept something.\u201d<\/p>\n
A US official told AFP that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff were scheduled to arrive in Geneva for the talks, and that US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll had already arrived there after meeting Zelenskyy in Kyiv.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have an informal pre-meeting tonight for dinner\u201d with Ukrainian delegates, the US official said.<\/p>\n
Russian \u2018representatives\u2019 expected<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said \u201cconsultations will take place with partners regarding the steps needed to end the war\u201d, after issuing a decree naming Ukraine\u2019s delegation for the talks, led by his top aide Andriy Yermak.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur representatives know how to defend Ukraine\u2019s national interests and what is necessary to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the senior officials would meet in Geneva \u201cto take things further forward\u201d, stressing the importance of solid \u201csecurity guarantees\u201d for Ukraine under any settlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus very much now is on Geneva tomorrow and whether we can make progress tomorrow morning,\u201d he told the media on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy\u2019s decree said the negotiations would include \u201crepresentatives of the Russian Federation\u201d. There was no immediate confirmation from Russia whether it would join the talks.<\/p>\n
Starmer said his national security adviser Jonathan Powell would be in Geneva on Sunday. Italian diplomatic sources said their country was sending the prime minister\u2019s national security advisor Fabrizio Saggio. Security officials from France and Germany will also attend, sources at the G20 summit said.<\/p>\n
West says plan needs more \u2018work\u2019<\/p>\n
Western leaders at the G20 summit said that the US plan was \u201ca basis which will require additional work\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force,\u201d the leaders of key European countries as well as Canada and Japan said in a joint statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine\u2019s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.\u201d <\/p>\n
Zelensky said yesterday in an address to the nation that Ukraine faces one of the most challenging moments in its history, adding that he would propose \u201calternatives\u201d to Trump\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest. Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,\u201d Zelenskyy said in his address, referring to a possible break with Washington.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the blueprint could \u201clay the foundation\u201d for a final peace settlement but threatened more land seizures if Ukraine walked away from negotiations.<\/p>\n
Better equipped and larger in numbers, the Russian Army is slowly but steadily gaining ground across the lengthy front line.<\/p>\n
Ukrainians are facing one of the toughest winters since the war began, after Moscow carried out a brutal bombing campaign against energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 that the 30 countries in the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d supporting Kyiv would hold a video call on Tuesday local time after the Geneva talks.<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked by reporters if it was his \u201cfinal offer to Ukraine\u201d, Trump replied: \u201cNo\u201d. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33846,806,17909,100174,8127,36302,100173,6446,5904,1768,42,28162,185,9862,43,5006,13692,10711,2170,8105,3048,312,2437,9939,1769,301,61,40,38,41,39,2179,3461,100172,9938,3040,6149,100175,1533,102],"class_list":["post-149764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-along","tag-as","tag-chiefs","tag-discuss","tag-end","tag-ending","tag-envoys","tag-european","tag-final","tag-geneva","tag-headlines","tag-hold","tag-is","tag-meet","tag-news","tag-not","tag-offer","tag-officials","tag-plan","tag-russia","tag-said","tag-says","tag-security","tag-states","tag-switzerland","tag-talks","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-united","tag-us","tag-war","tag-washingtons","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}