‘Patch-up, make money with US deals’: Trump weighs in as Russia, Ukraine clash over Easter ceasefire violation

United States President Donald Trump has made a fresh pitch to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine that have engaged in a war since February 2022. In a post on his media platform ‘Truth Social’, Donald Trump hoped that both Russia and Ukraine will patch-up this week and make a fortune from “big” business deals with the United States.

“HOPEFULLY RUSSIA AMD UKRAINE WILL MAKE A DEAL THIS WEEK. BOTH WILL THEN START TO DO BIG BUSINESS WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHICH IS THRIVING, AND MAKE A FORTUNE,” Donald Trump wrote.

The fresh peace pitch from Donald Trump has come when both Russia and Ukraine are trading blame over alleged violations during one-day Easter ceasefire, originally announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier, Donald Trump hinted the US might “take a pass” on brokering a peace deal if either side complicates negotiations too much.

“If, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say, 'You're foolish, you're foolish. You're horrible people,' and we're just going to take a pass,” Donald Trump said and added, “I think we have a really good chance of getting it done. It's coming to a head right now.”

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the Easter ceasefire, with the Kremlin saying there was no order to extend the pause in frontline fighting. Earlier, Washington had said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated several times Ukraine's willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.

Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia's own ceasefire vow, while Moscow, too, said that Ukraine broke the ceasefire 1,000 times causing civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure.

(With agency inputs)