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Translated by: Flutura Gashi-Mehmeti
- June 17, 2026 07:52
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US President Donald Trump said Russia should make peace with Ukraine after a meeting he described as "very good" with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
His comments have sparked optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal can be reached.
The optimistic atmosphere about the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, stands in stark contrast to Zelensky's meeting with Trump in the Oval Office last year, when he was told he had no influence on potential peace talks with Russia.
Zelensky and his European allies are gathering at this week's G7 summit in a French resort, hoping to impress on Trump that Ukraine's battlefield fortunes have improved thanks to its drone incursions deep into Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump, who arrived at the summit having reached a preliminary agreement to end his war with Iran, said he would do what he could to end the conflict in Ukraine, but had few details about any concrete steps to increase pressure on Moscow.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Trump's statement that Russia should end the war was cause for joy.
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"I found him very cooperative and I also saw him listening very attentively," Merz told reporters. "And in that regard, once again, it gives me a certain degree of optimism that we here, as Europeans and as Americans, are now doing everything we can, together, to end the war."
After the group's meeting with Trump, Zelensky told Reuters that G7 leaders agreed that Russia was not winning the war.
He also said they also discussed additional sanctions targeting Russia's oil exports, its banking sector and its military production, thereby putting pressure on Moscow to sit at the negotiating table.
