Russian air travel chaos as pro-Ukraine hackers claim hit on Aeroflot; drone targets Ukrainian man taking cow out to pasture. What we know on day 1,252
Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Donald Trump showed a “clear stance and expressed determination” after the US president said he would cut the 50-day deadline he set for Russia to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Trump on Monday set a new but still imprecise deadline of “10 or 12 days from today” for Russia to make progress towards peace or face consequences. Trump’s previous deadlines to end the war have included “one day … 24 hours” and “about two weeks … within two weeks” as well as “50 days”.
Two weeks had already passed since Trump threatened to act within 50 days, leaving 36 days remaining of the original deadline. The new ultimatum of “10 or 12 days” means the US president has given Putin about 25 fewer days to deliberate. Trump has threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made.
On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in talking directly to Putin. “If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.” Zelenskyy said: “I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war … Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses.”
