Trump Hints Of Renewed Ukraine Focus, Iran In 'Rear-View Mirror'
by Ray Furlong and , RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · JoinUS President Donald Trump held a "very good meeting" with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the G7 summit in France, he told journalists on June 16, adding that "Russia should make a deal" while hinting that Europe's largest conflict since World War II might be moving up his priority list.
US efforts to broker peace in the conflict that has raged since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have largely stalled in recent months, particularly since US and Israeli air strikes began the war with Iran on February 28.
But Trump suggested this may change now that a framework agreement with Iran has been announced.
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White House Says Iran, Ukraine, High On Trump's G7 Agenda
Asked if he would now have "a special focus" on Ukraine, Trump responded: "We were focused on Iran. That's going to be in the back, in the rear-view mirror…. I want to do whatever I can."
Trump also said he would meet with Zelenskyy again later on June 16.
Earlier, as Zelenskyy sat down with G7 leaders, including Trump, he opened a folder with a photograph of what appeared to a nighttime fire -- possibly the results of Russia's recent attack on the iconic UNESCO-protected Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Cathedral.
"The key focus is to strengthen air defense for Ukraine and advance diplomacy, to make Russia end its war," Zelenskyy posted on X after the meeting. "Peace is needed."
Zelenskyy has often presented photos of Russian attacks and atrocities at diplomatic meetings. The strike on the cathedral, at the heart of a historic monastery complex, has drawn global condemnation and underscored how there is still no end in sight to the conflict -- or to intense Russian air strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has also been hitting back, in particular with a campaign of long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries that continued in the hours before the G7 summit with an attack on an oil refinery near Moscow that supplies some 40 percent of the capital region's fuel consumption.
On the battlefield , Russian forces have failed to achieve any breakthrough in what has become a largely static war of attrition.
Prior to the summit, Bloomberg reported that US allies wanted to convince Trump that Ukraine now held the initiative in the conflict.
As Trump was speaking, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were currently no plans for US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to visit Moscow. They have been frequent visitors to the Russian capital but have never visited Kyiv.
Elsewhere on the diplomatic and economic front, Ukraine has also been making advances, notably by finally launching formal accession negotiations with the European Union on June 15.
As talks were ongoing at the G7, a post on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's X account said the Lavra attack was "deplorable."
"Attacks like this are why I have announced sanctions to target the vessels, the money, and the actors propping up Russia's war economy, and in turn, threatening European security," it said, referring to new British measures timed to coincide with the summit.
The move came after British forces seized a Russian shadow fleet tanker for the first time on June 14. The vessel, a Cameroon-flagged oil tanker named Smyrtos, is now being held at anchor in UK waters. Its captain was due to appear in court in Britain on June 16 and could face a 10-year prison sentence for transporting sanctioned Russian oil.
Trump Hints Of Renewed Ukraine Focus, Iran In 'Rear-View Mirror'
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