WASHINGTON, November 6 (Aalimi Nation) – United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a settlement between Russia and Ukraine could be close, after he met Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the White House. He offered no details of what the two men discussed and did not meet the Ukrainian delegation that was in Washington the same day.
Russia-Ukraine deal: what Trump said
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I think we're going to be very close to settling Russia-Ukraine." He added that any agreement would be "a big agreement" and could involve "all of Europe," not only Ukraine. Asked about his conversation with Dmitriev, he declined to describe its content, saying he could not say what was discussed.
Trump has predicted before that a deal was near, and negotiations have picked up pace in recent weeks. No terms of an agreement have been made public, and "close" remains the president's own description rather than a confirmed outcome.
The First Lady's event
Earlier in the day, First Lady Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House. The President did not attend that gathering. The event followed a temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in Ukraine's Kherson region, which the First Lady helped arrange. The truce ran from October 27 to November 1 and allowed the evacuation of nearly 800 civilians, along with deliveries of food and medical supplies.
Those present included Dmitriev; Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner; David Arakhamia, who leads the Servant of the People party in Ukraine's parliament; and Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's parliamentary human rights commissioner. Melania Trump urged both sides to build on the truce, calling it a "spark in a world of darkness."
She handed envelopes containing her personal letters to the representatives of Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Dmitriev presented her with a painting by an 11-year-old girl. Zelenskyy sent her the Order of Princess Olga, a Ukrainian state award, in recognition of her part in the ceasefire. The White House described the event as the first time a First Lady had personally brought representatives of two nations at war to the White House for diplomacy.
Background and what comes next
The meetings come ahead of planned talks involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi. Some European analysts have expressed scepticism about the approach, and a few have said such efforts could backfire.
Trump did not say what a broader agreement would contain or how Europe would be involved, and no terms have been published. The only concrete outcome publicly confirmed from the day's events is the humanitarian truce in Oleshky and the contacts that followed it.
