WASHINGTON, Dec 8 — US President Donald Trump yesterday said he felt “a little bit disappointed” with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for not engaging with a plan to end the war with Russia.

“So we’ve been speaking to President Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders—including Zelensky, President Zelensky—and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,” Trump told reporters when asked on the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors.

Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, ended Saturday without an apparent breakthrough, though Zelensky committed to conducting further talks toward “real peace.”

The talks came after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, with Moscow rejecting parts of the US proposal.

The US plan has been through several drafts since it first emerged last month, amid criticism it was too soft on Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. — AFP