U.S. President Donald Trump said his message to Russian leader Vladimir Putin was that the war in Ukraine “has to end,” after what he described as “good” talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Davos on Thursday, as Washington steps up shuttle diplomacy to push for a settlement in the nearly four-year-old conflict.
The hour-long meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum came amid weeks of frenetic contacts between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv faces pressure from Trump to secure peace despite few signs that Moscow is ready to stop fighting.
“I had a very good meeting with President Zelenskyy. Everybody wants to have the war end,” Trump told reporters after the talks. “I think the meeting with President Zelenskyy was good. It’s an ongoing process.” He said U.S. envoys were heading for Moscow talks with Putin, adding that a deal was “reasonably close,” although he did not provide further details on the substance of the conversation.
Zelenskyy also described the talks as “good,” according to his spokesperson.
Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy had said he would only travel to Davos if he could sign agreements with Trump on U.S. security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine. However, there was no indication after the meeting that a breakthrough had been reached on either issue.
The two leaders have met around half a dozen times face-to-face since Trump returned to the White House last year and upended U.S. policy on Ukraine by embracing direct diplomacy with Russia.
Zelenskyy is grappling with a deepening energy crisis at home caused by Russian airstrikes that have left swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating. He was due to deliver a speech following his meeting with Trump, his spokesperson said.
U.S. envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff said negotiators had made “a lot of progress” and suggested talks were nearing a decisive stage.
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” Witkoff told an audience at the World Economic Forum on Thursday morning. He added that negotiators were focused on resolving “just one final issue,” without elaborating.
Witkoff has held talks in recent days with Ukrainian officials in Davos, following weekend discussions in Florida. He was due in Moscow later on Thursday with fellow U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, for talks with Putin on a possible plan to end what has become Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two. After those discussions, negotiators would head directly to Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said, “where there will be military-to-military talks and discussion of the prosperity package.”
Trump confirmed that a meeting between Putin and the U.S. envoys is planned, though the timing appeared fluid. Putin indicated earlier Thursday that he would receive the envoys in Moscow the same day, while Trump said the meeting would take place on Friday.
“We have peace in the Middle East ... and I believe another one’s coming pretty soon,” Trump said earlier in the day, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war as the next potential diplomatic success for his administration.
Russia has been cool on the U.S.-led peace push and continues to demand that Kyiv give up part of its eastern Donetsk region, an area Moscow has been unable to fully conquer despite grinding advances on the battlefield.
Putin said late on Wednesday that talks with the U.S. envoys would cover a possible settlement on Ukraine, the potential use of frozen Russian assets for reconstruction of Moscow-occupied land and Trump’s proposal for a “Board of Peace,” a new body tasked with promoting peace around the world.
Critics say the proposed Board of Peace could rival or undermine the United Nations and raise questions over existing multilateral structures.
The Kremlin said Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner will take place after 7 to 8 p.m. Moscow time (1600 to 1700 GMT).
Even as diplomacy gained momentum, Russian forces kept up their attacks on Ukraine.
Russian airstrikes hit several parts of the country on Thursday. In the southern Odesa region, a 17-year-old man was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.
In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, 11 people were wounded when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials reported.
In the capital, Kyiv, nearly 3,000 high-rises remained without heating on Thursday following Russia’s latest wave of strikes earlier in the week, further straining a population already enduring recurring blackouts and energy shortages.
Against that backdrop, Zelenskyy and Trump’s Davos encounter, together with the planned Moscow and Abu Dhabi talks, have raised cautious hopes that a framework for ending the conflict may be edging closer – even as fighting on the ground shows no sign of an immediate halt.
