WASHINGTON, October 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that Russia is willing to negotiate peace in Ukraine and make a deal.
"I think now he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is willing to negotiate a little bit further, and I think he's willing to make a deal. We’ll see," Trump said at a news briefing in the White House on Wednesday following his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
On October 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia has not altered its stance compared to the understandings reached during the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska that a lasting and sustainable peace is needed rather than an immediate ceasefire that would lead nowhere. Russia’s top diplomat said he had reiterated this to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call on October 20.
According to Lavrov, the calls for "stopping immediately" now coming from Washington would mean ignoring the root causes of the conflict in Ukraine "the US administration under Donald Trump clearly understood and said it recognized this," he noted.