Russia, U.S. Making Slow Progress Toward Ukraine Ceasefire
April 5—Sources close to the White House report that despite reports to the contrary from NATO’s propaganda machine embedded in the international media, slow and steady progress is being made toward an agreement on a full ceasefire in NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his chief envoy in the Ukraine peace talks, Kirill Dmitriev, who is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund) to Washington for meetings with Trump Administration officials, including President Donald Trump’s close associate and the man he has charged with coming up with a peace deal, Steve Witkoff. Sources report that the lengthy meeting between the two April 2 went over issues and objections from Putin to the ceasefire plan. Russia is reportedly concerned about the composition of the force that will oversee the ceasefire, demanding that there be no NATO involvement. The force, to which the British and French have already made commitments, is viewed by the Russians as de facto putting NATO boots on the ground in the warzone.
The sources say that the U.S has come up with a way to ease Russian fears.
These matters and other items will be on the agenda of a meeting next week in Riyadh between the U.S. and Russian delegations. It is thought that Dmitriev will attend that meeting, after he first carries messages from Trump and Witkoff to Putin, who is expected to transmit his reply before the Riyadh meeting. The plans are then for Trump and Putin to talk by phone, to work out some details of the agreement.
The sources report that Trump, who has expressed his frustration at the slow pace of the talks, nonetheless believes that he will still be able meet his original timetable for the deal, which would mean that a ceasefire would go into effect on Easier Sunday, April 20.
Trump has also taken the responsibility to get NATO’s sock puppet Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky to sign on to the deal he negotiates, as Zelensky has already promised Trump he would do so.
If a deal is agreed to, sources report, Trump is likely to meet with Putin directly and then summon Zelensky to wherever that meeting takes place, for his first face-to-face meeting with the Russian President. With U.S. mediating, the terms of an actual peace deal and an end to all fighting, that would include guarantees by the United States, would then be worked out between Russia and Ukraine. Trump’s original scenario for a peace deal, which he worked out with Witkoff before he assumed office Jan. 20, called for the announcement to the world of the terms of the deal to take place May 9 at Moscow’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Trump, these sources say, plans to attend the May 9 celebration, having been invited by Putin.
In a related matter, these sources say that Trump is furious with Zelensky and his European Union sponsors for getting him to back out of the much-publicized rare minerals and heavy metal development deal that he was ready to sign in Washington last month, before he lost his mind and staged a confrontation with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a press meeting in the Oval Office before the signing. Trump sees the agreement as part of an elaborate plan for the U.S. to guarantee the peace deal and ceasefire, sources say. He will demand that it be signed in more or less its agreed upon form.
Meanwhile, Dmitriev announced last week that a massive economic development deal with the U.S. is in the works to mine and develop Russian heavy metal and rare earth resources. Sources have reported that the deal could be valued well above USD$1 trillion, making it the largest such deal in history. It is thought that the Americans and Russians will discuss this deal at their meeting next week in Saudi Arabia.