Trump gives two weeks to assess Russia-Ukraine peace talks

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (August 21, 2025) set a two-week time frame for assessing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as he ramps up his efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

“I would say within two weeks we’re going to know one way or the other,” he said in a telephone interview when asked about the chances of a peace agreement.

“After that, we’ll have to maybe take a different tack,” Mr. Trump told Todd Starnes, a host for media outlet Newsmax, without giving further details.

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The Republican, who had promised during last year’s presidential election to end the war in one day, has so far failed to achieve any major breakthroughs — more than three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

He met Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday (August 15, 2025) at a highly anticipated summit in Alaska that failed to reach an accord and saw Mr. Trump drop his push for an initial ceasefire.

On Monday (August 18, 2025), the U.S. President held talks at the White House with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a handful of European allies.

Those meetings raised hopes that Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy could meet directly for a peace summit, as both leaders initially appeared open to that option.

But Mr. Zelenskyy on Thursday (August 21, 2025) accused Russia of “trying to avoid the necessity to meet” and said that it did not want to end the war.

Russia, meanwhile, said that Ukraine did not seem to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow’s demands.

Mr. Trump has a track record of issuing two-week deadlines to deliberate on Ukraine and other issues.

In late May, he said he would assess within that period whether Mr. Putin was serious about achieving a peace deal, promising to respond “differently” if not.