Trump sends message to Putin 'war has to end' after good meeting with Zelensky

US, Ukraine officials pursue shuttle diplomacy as Trump presses Kyiv for peace despite Moscow’s stance

United States President Donald Trump said his message to Russian leader Vladimir Putin was that the war in Ukraine has to end, after what he said were "good" talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Davos on Thursday.

US and Ukrainian officials have spent weeks in frenetic shuttle diplomacy as Kyiv faces pressure from Trump to secure peace in the nearly four-year-old war, despite few signs Moscow wants to stop fighting.

After a meeting with the Ukrainian leader that lasted around an hour, Trump said they had a "good" discussion but provided no further details on the substance of the conversation. On Wednesday, Trump had said a deal was "reasonably close".

"I think the meeting with President Zelensky was good. It's an ongoing process," Trump told reporters, saying that US envoys were heading for talks in Moscow today. Asked what his message was for Putin, Trump replied: "The war has to end."

Zelensky had said earlier this week he would only travel to Davos if he could sign agreements with Trump on US security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine, but there was no indication after the meeting that a breakthrough had been made.

The two leaders have met around half a dozen times face-to-face since Trump returned to the White House last year and upended U.S. policy on Ukraine by embracing diplomacy with Russia.

Zelensky, saddled with an energy crisis at home from Russian air strikes that have left swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating, was due to deliver a speech after his meeting with Trump, his spokesperson said.

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"If both sides want to solve this, we're going to get it solved," US envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff told an audience at the World Economic Forum in the morning. "I think we've made a lot of progress."

Talks with Putin in Moscow

Witkoff has held talks in recent days with Ukrainian officials in Davos, following weekend discussions in Florida. He was due in Moscow with fellow US envoy Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, later today for talks with Putin on the possible plan to end Europe's deadliest war since World War Two

After those discussions, negotiators would head directly to Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said, "where there will be military-to-military talks and discussion of the prosperity package".

Russia has been cool on the US-led peace push, demanding that Kyiv give up part of its eastern Donetsk region which Moscow has been unable to conquer despite grinding forward on the battlefield.

Putin said late on Wednesday that they would discuss a settlement on Ukraine and the possibility of using frozen Russian assets for reconstruction of Moscow-occupied land, as well as Trump's proposal for a Board of Peace, tasked with promoting peace around the world.

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Critics of the proposal have said it would rival or undermine the United Nations.

The Kremlin said Putin's meeting with Witkoff and Kushner will take place after 7 to 8pm Moscow time (1600 to 1700 GMT).

Ukraine's international bonds rallied more than two cents today as the bout of high-level diplomatic meetings lifted hopes in financial markets that progress could be made towards ending the war.

Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes hit several parts of Ukraine today. In the southern region of Odesa, a 17-year-old man was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.

Eleven people were also wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials said.

In the capital Kyiv, nearly 3,000 high-rises across the city remained without heating after Russia's latest attack earlier this week.