Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on Ukraine to Sign Peace Deal

Amid deepening tensions with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump has turned up the pressure on the Eastern European nation to strike a deal to end the war with Russia.

Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Trump continued to lay blame on the Ukrainian president for obstructing peace efforts aimed at ending the multi-year conflict.

"Zelenskyy has to want to settle this war, and if he doesn't want to, I think that would be a very bad thing," Trump said, noting that Russia has "unlimited" manpower to throw into the fight.

Shortly afterward, the US president brought up his tense Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy in February 2025, soon after returning to power. According to Trump, Zelenskyy could have secured a "better deal" at the time.

"He's going to have to want to make a deal, because I don't think his people are going to put up with this much longer," Trump told reporters.

On the same day, the Ukrainian president met US envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders in Oslo, Norway, to discuss ending Russia's war. In a social media post after the meeting, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had "some clear ideas on how to get to peace," without giving details.

"We agreed with our European partners on this effort and expect the US side to convey those ideas to Russia. One important idea is moving toward a potential trilateral meeting of the leaders to settle the issues that only leaders can handle," Zelenskyy wrote.

The Ukrainian leader added that Witkoff would travel to Russia on Wednesday, where peace discussions were expected to continue. "Let's see what Putin says," Zelenskyy said.

Asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin should meet with Zelenskyy, Trump said there was "tremendous" hostility between the two leaders. "It's hard for them to be in the same room. I don't care how it gets done," Trump said.

Starlink controversy

Trump's remarks came as the White House kept up pressure to push Ukraine into a deal with Russia. Last week, Ukrainian officials reported a slowdown in Starshield, the military-grade version of the Starlink satellite system operated by aerospace company SpaceX. Ukraine relies on the technology for communications and intelligence to fend off Russian attacks.

It remains unclear who ordered the restrictions on Ukraine's access to Starshield. SpaceX CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk blamed the White House. "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately by the President," Musk wrote on October 14.

Reuters also reported that the order came from inside the White House, citing two US officials and a Western official. However, a Wall Street Journal article on Tuesday said US officials were blaming Musk himself, saying the SpaceX CEO issued the order last week. Both Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the government directed the restrictions, with Hegseth shifting responsibility toward SpaceX.

Warming ties with Putin

Meanwhile, Trump has sought to ease historically strained relations between Russia and the United States. In August 2025, Trump invited Putin to Alaska, the Russian leader's first visit to US territory in a decade.

More recently, this month, Trump expressed willingness to meet Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of trilateral discussions on denuclearization. Trump also announced this month that he had reached a deal to buy diesel from Russia, a notable reversal from years of US pressure on Moscow's economy.

The US president also waived new economic restrictions that would have taken effect under the Lindsey Graham Sanctions Russia and Iran Act, a bipartisan law he signed a month earlier in memory of the late senator. The law would have imposed sanctions on Russian officials, banks and tankers, as well as tariffs on countries buying Russian oil.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the decision on Tuesday, saying the law allows for exemptions through a clause embedded in the text. "The President chose to use the national security waiver so as not to immediately deploy those sanctions and restrictions, because he recognizes that these issues must be considered as a whole," Rubio said in an interview with India's News18 channel.

Rubio argued that Trump was striking a "balance" in deciding the level of US-imposed economic restrictions and their impact on the rest of the world. "When you apply pressure like that, sometimes it spills over and negatively affects other countries," Rubio said.