#peace-negotiations

#peace-negotiations

Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner have been meeting top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv's armed forces. Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings, said a summary of the talks.

Trump told reporters in the White House Oval Office on Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner had "a reasonably good" meeting with Putin, but later said the discussions were "very good". Their impression was that Putin would "like to see the war ended ... their impression was very strongly that he wants to make a deal," Trump said, but stressed he didn't know if a deal was possible.

With his bear-like look and immense clout, Andriy Yermak towered over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for years literally and figuratively. A former copyright lawyer who collaborated with District 95, a comic troupe that propelled Zelenskyy to stardom, the 54-year-old Yermak became Ukraine's grey cardinal after the former comedian won the 2019 presidential vote. list of 4 itemsend of list While chief of Zelenskyy's staff, Yermak played an outsized role he was widely considered as vice president and vice prime minister.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Paris on Monday, where he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss continued European support for Kyiv as US President Donald Trump seeks to push Zelenskyy to make harsh concessions to aggressor Russia in hopes of ending Vladimir Putin's nearly four-year invasion. On Sunday, US and Ukrainian negotiators held "productive" meetings in Florida, where peace proposals were discussed.

Yermak's resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine's negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine's delegation to peace talks with the White House. It's a mini revolution in the political system and the governance system, said Kyiv-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. Yermak was the key element in the system of power that Zelensky had built.

The trip, where he is scheduled to meet Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is an attempt to revive talks with Moscow seeking an end to the war. "We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners. Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine's top priority," Zelenskyy said of the visit.

Germany's foreign minister said on Monday that Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and other Arab states are exerting pressure on militant group Hamas in Gaza to disarm to support further peace negotiations with Israel. "All these states don't want Hamas to continue to be active. They want disarmament and in this respect we have a good pressure scenario, because it won't work without pressure," Minister Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio.

We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they're, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it's something I think that will happen, got a good chance of happening. I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually, and we'll see, said Trump. But there's a very good chance, negotiations are going along very well. We're dealing with Hamas, and many of the countries.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the 20-point plan are due to begin in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. The talks, which come on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the war, have raised hopes that the devastating conflict, which has killed tens of thousands in Gaza, could soon end. But at the same time, there are plenty of potential obstacles to sealing a deal.

Musab has been in a coma since May, when an Israeli attack left him with a serious head wound. Musab has necrotic lesions and is severely malnourished, his father says. In the photos, he looks skeletal and has lost a lot of hair, one of the symptoms of starvation. Until October 7 [2023], we had a more or less happy life. That day, that was cut short.

No other international leader has been as frequent a visitor to the White House during Donald Trump's second term as Benjamin Netanyahu: the Israeli prime minister visited the Oval Office Monday for the fourth time in eight months. None of his previous visits yielded any progress toward peace, and those meetings only served to buy the Israeli leader more time in his deadly offensive in Gaza.