US President Donald Trump expressed sympathy toward the Russian invading force, and claimed Moscow is ready for a ceasefire while Ukraine allegedly isn’t, during his press briefing on 23 April. His remarks came approximately during a massive Russian missile and drone assault on Ukrainian cities, which killed 11 civilians and injured more than 100.

During the briefing, when asked about meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said:

“I don’t know that he’s going to the [Pope’s] funeral or not, but I just hope he gets this thing solved.”

Trump focused on military casualties, claiming:

“5,000 soldiers are being killed every week approximately… from 3,000 to 5,000 are being killed. They’re Russian and Ukrainian, they’re not Americans, but they’re Russian, but they’re people and they’re humans. They’re human beings, they have families, they wave goodbye to their son, and then they get a call that the son’s no longer there it’s a vicious war.“

The US President continued:

“If I can solve it because of a certain ability that would be great… I think Russia is ready… I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy, and I hope that Zelenskyy – I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy, so far it’s been harder.”

Trump repeated his claim that the war “would have never had this problem” if he were president instead of Biden, stating “for four years you didn’t have it,” despite Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine continuing throughout Trump’s first term.

Crimea

Earlier on 23 April, Trump claimed that Zelenskyy complicates negotiations with his statements about Crimea, calling Ukraine’s situation terrible. According to Trump, Zelenskyy’s statement that Ukraine would never legally recognize Russian occupation of Crimea “causes serious harm to peace negotiations with Russia, as Crimea was lost many years ago.”

This followed Zelenskyy’s 22 April statement that Ukraine would not recognize the Russian occupation of Crimea, and that all rumors about “proposals” from President Trump were not official US information or position.

Trump’s Crimea comments indirectly confirmed that the US is pressuring Ukraine to cede its Crimean peninsula to Russia, in violation of international law and Ukraine’s constitution.

US Vice President JD Vance stated that the United States would withdraw from negotiations if Ukraine and Russia refuse territorial concessions. The vice president claimed both Ukraine and Russia would need to give up parts of territory each side currently controls, despite Washington’s non-existent demands to Russia.

Previously leaked US ceasefire proposals revealed that Washington largely echoed Russia’s demands for Ukraine’s capitulation—including major territorial concessions and a rejection of NATO membership—while placing no conditions on Russia.

Currently, the general sentiment among the Ukrainian public toward Trump’s peace efforts is that Ukraine doesn’t need the US to capitulate, and it could have done so anytime over the past three years if it wanted to.