The journalist asked Rutte if he believed that there should be a ceasefire in Ukraine before peace talks could begin. He responded by recalling that US President Donald Trump 17 October after the meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House called on Ukraine and the Russian Federation conclude a peace agreement and “stop where you are”. Zelensky I agreed with this.
Before meeting Trump in Washington, Rutte said he would discuss the issue.
“It sounds simple, but of course it is also absolutely correct. So I completely agree with him. Stop where you are – that's the main message. […] Personally, I, the Ambassador, we can all help him [Трампу] realize this vision,” Rutte said.
Context
The Kremlin called Trump's proposal a “newspaper report.” According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, calls for a truce right now, without eliminating the “root causes of the Ukrainian conflict” (as he calls the Russian war against Ukraine), allegedly contradict what the illegitimate president of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and Trump agreed upon at a meeting in Alaska.
The Washington Post, citing two officials, wrote that Putin allegedly promised Trump to return to Ukraine parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions that his troops occupied after 2022, in exchange for full control over the Donetsk region.
