Zelensky ready to make a peace deal, Trump claims after Davos meeting
President Volodymyr Zelensky is prepared to make a deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 22.
Trump's remarks followed a meeting between the two leaders earlier that day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Shortly after the meeting, Zelensky announced that Ukraine would participate in trilateral talks with the U.S. and Russia in the United Arab Emirates starting Jan. 23.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Jan. 22, Trump said Zelensky told him during their conversation that he was ready to make a peace deal.
"He said he'd like to make a deal. ... He came and he said he wants to make a deal," Trump said.
The comment marks a shift from Trump's position earlier this month, when he claimed that Zelensky was the one holding up a potential agreement.
Trump also said on Jan. 22 that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to make a deal. As Trump spoke to reporters, his envoys held a meeting with Putin and his aides in Moscow ahead of the trilateral talks.
While Trump was asked to provide details about the content of the agreement, the remaining points of contention, and possible changes that may have made Kyiv or Moscow more amenable to a deal, the U.S. president provided few specifics. He said there were "no changes" and that the discussion topics are "things that have been discussed for six or seven months."
At times, Trump's commentary on the war veered into disjointed abstractions and real estate jargon.
"It's complex. You have metes and bounds, you have streets, you have rivers, you have everything — you know, where does it end? So it's a little bit complicated. ... There are metes and bounds, it's a location, it's boundaries," he said.
Trump also acknowledged the "tough" situation Ukrainians face amid a worsening energy crisis — without mentioning that Russia caused the crisis by deliberately attacking Ukraine's power grid despite severe winter cold.
"It's really tough for the people of Ukraine, I'll tell you that," Trump said. "How they live, without heat, where it's 20 degrees below zero, you know it's very cold. ... I asked (Zelensky), I mean, how do they do that and he gave me an answer. It's pretty amazing what they do to live. It's no way to live."
Trump has been trying to strike a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine for over a year, brokering a series of talks that have yielded few results and done nothing to hamper Russia's intensifying drone and missile campaign against Ukrainian civilians.
Russia has not signaled any interest in cooperating with the U.S.–Ukraine peace plan finalized in December, although it has acknowledged receiving the provisions. The latest plan is a revised version of a 28-point proposal co-drafted by Russia that heavily favored Moscow.
