US Presses Ukraine for Quick Truce to Go With Minerals Deal

The best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,

Kellogg said at an event Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations

Volodymyr Zelenskyypresident

The reason he came to the White House was to sign a document that was going to say this is us going forward — it’s not signed,

Kellogg said of Zelensky

But he’s offering is offering to do it,

Brennan said

Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,

Kellogg said

By the way this is not something that is unusual. When I was in Kyiv two weeks ago, I was very clear to President Zelensky the outcome if we didn’t have a signed agreement,

Kellogg later added

Margaret Brennanhost

That’s a pretty major concession to Russia, to constrain Ukraine’s ability to target and hit Russian forces,

CBS’ Margaret Brennan, who was moderating the conversation with Keith Kellogg at the Council on Foreign Relations, said of the cutoff on intelligence sharing

We’re going to end this war, and this is one way to make sure you understand we’re serious about it,

Kellogg said Thursday

That's up to the president,

Kellogg said

Volodymyr Zelenskyypresident

I am scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to meet with the crown prince,

said Zelenskyy, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom

We'll see if he follows through,

Witkoff said

I think what's going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don't think they have a choice,

Trump said

There is no point in rummaging around in a cupboard that has already been scraped clean.”

Tom Waldwyn, an expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, says

Europe realises that it cannot produce the weapons that Ukraine needs. The easiest way to fill the deficit is for the Ukrainians to do it themselves.”

As one EU official notes

So probably about half the weapons which Ukraine is now using are provided by its own defense industry. And of the remainder, it's about half and half between the United States and the others, including the Europeans,

Chalmers said

And finally, the U.S. plays a very important role in providing information, intelligence to the Ukrainian forces,

Chalmers said

There are certain systems, ranging from Patriot missiles all the way through to spare parts for the Abrams tanks and Bradley personnel carriers, that the Ukrainians are using, that the only way the Europeans can get [them] is by buying them on the open market. And that is going to take time,

Galeotti told VOA,

Mark Galeottianalyst

There is a sharp limit to what Europe can do,

said Mark Galeotti, an analyst at Mayak Intelligence and the author of "Forged in War," a military history of Russia

I hope that [Trump] will change his mind. The victim of aggression cannot be guilty of everything and be punished in addition to that,

she told VOA

Oleksiy Goncharenkoukrainian lawmaker

This means that thousands of people will die,

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko told The Associated Press

Increasingly, Ukraine has been producing its own weapons,

Chalmers told The Associated Press