Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said President Donald Trump is uniquely positioned to drive negotiations between Ukraine and Russia toward an eventual peace agreement, telling Newsmax on Tuesday that recent prisoner exchanges and backchannel contacts show momentum is building, even as major differences remain.
"President Trump holds all the cards," Whitaker told "Newsline" host Bianca de la Garza. "He's put tariffs, secondary sanctions, on India. And he could do that with other countries that are buying Russian oil. He had meetings on Friday and Monday of last week to try to create the conditions so that these two sides could talk."
Whitaker's comments come a day after Trump softened on the chances of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "They don't like each other, really," Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office.
However, Whitaker noted that while Moscow and Kyiv continue to spar over core demands, small signs of progress are emerging.
"They're exchanging prisoners. They're having some communications at lower levels, but they're going to have to both want to make a deal," he said. "It appears that Russia continues to want more than Ukraine will agree to. But at the same time, there are conversations going on."
Despite frustrations, Whitaker stressed that Trump's active involvement could help set the stage for a breakthrough.
"While I think it's frustrating that we're so close, yet so far, I think there is still the opportunity to have good communications and potentially a summit between these two leaders to resolve this war."
Whitaker underscored the urgency of ending the conflict, pointing to the heavy toll on both soldiers and civilians. "The killing needs to end, the bloodshed needs to end. It is a meat grinder. Thousands of soldiers are dying every day, plus civilians in major cities in Ukraine," he said. "It's only a matter of time before this gets resolved, and we might as well resolve it sooner than later."
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