Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Newsmax on Monday that President Donald Trump's work bringing Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table shows his skills "as a peacemaker."
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly began speaking on a phone call around 10 a.m. on Monday to discuss a potential ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine following a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier that day.
Whitaker told "Newsline" Monday afternoon, "This is an incredibly important call," noting that "Donald Trump is the one that has brought this really to the point where we are."
He added, "Remember, for three years, there were no discussions between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia. And now, Donald Trump, as a peacemaker, is trying to bring both sides together. He's trying to exert some leverage and, on both sides, to try to get them to agree. But it's going to take both the Russians and the Ukrainians to agree to a deal to end this killing that President Trump has said, and you mentioned, needs to end."
Whitaker said, "5,000 people, including civilians, a week are dying on the battlefields … of Ukraine."
He added that the war "needs to end" and praised Trump for "getting both sides to the table."
Whitaker said Trump is "negotiating; he is putting the amount of pressure that's appropriate and necessary to bring a peace deal. And Donald Trump really is going to deserve all the credit when this fighting stops, and we do have an enduring ceasefire in Ukraine."
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