The conflict must end through a negotiated settlement, not victory over Russia, Scott Bessent has said<\/p>\n
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky over his insistence that his country must defeat Russia, rejecting his all-or-nothing stance as a \u201cfalse binary\u201d and insisting that the conflict must end through a negotiated settlement.
\nSpeaking to NBC\u2019s \u2018Meet the Press\u2019 on Sunday, Zelensky said Ukraine must win the conflict with Russia, calling victory essential to preserving the country\u2019s independence, geopolitical alignment, and national identity. He lamented that Ukraine \u201cwill not prevail\u201d if the US sides with Russia.
\n\u201cZelensky presents a false binary this morning that Ukraine must win,\u201d Bessent told the show shortly after Zelensky\u2019s appearance, arguing that the priority should be ending the conflict rather than determining a winner. \u201cThe war must end, and that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement.\u201d
\nBessent stressed that Trump made it clear \u201che wants to end this war,\u201d noting that the president\u2019s decisions are aimed at securing a negotiated settlement.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky never wanted to end war with Russia \u2013 Trump<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s remarks came amid a growing spat with Trump over sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities. Last week, Trump invoked\u00a0a national-interest exemption to suspend the sanctions he signed into law last month, including 500% tariffs on Russian imports and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
\nThe move followed Trump\u2019s decision days earlier to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports to ease rising fuel prices. According to US media reports, Trump eased the restrictions after Zelensky refused to halt strikes\u00a0on Russian energy facilities, which the president blamed for global fuel shortages and soaring prices at the pump \u2013 a critical issue just weeks before the US midterm elections. The moves sparked outrage in Kiev, where they were seen as a betrayal of Ukraine\u2019s efforts to maintain Western pressure on Russia.
\nIn a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump defended the moves, saying Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries are driving up prices, while stressing that he is focused on brokering a peace deal and does not want to \u201cdo anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.\u201d Trump also argued that Zelensky does not want to end the conflict and probably never did, despite receiving billions in Western aid.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky knows peace deal would end his regime \u2013 Lavrov (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed his criticism, suggesting on Sunday that Zelensky has \u201cno desire\u201d to reach a settlement because his government would collapse if Ukraine signed a deal that\u2019s acceptable to both the US and Russia.
\nZelensky, whose presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law. Moscow maintains that Zelensky is illegitimate; Trump recently called for his resignation, saying Ukraine should get \u201ca new president.\u201d
\nSince returning to office, Trump has revived talks with Russia, which were largely suspended under his predecessor, Joe Biden. His efforts to broker peace have produced some results, including POW exchanges, but the diplomatic push has been overshadowed by the US war against Iran and has yet to yield a peace deal.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Trump eyes reopening Europe to Russian gas \u2013 NYT<\/p>\n
Moscow has said it would prefer a negotiated settlement. Last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects to hold trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US in the foreseeable future. President Vladimir Putin, however, stressed that the conflict must end on terms that are acceptable to Russia \u2013 stressing that a settlement must address the root causes of the conflict and include the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, protection for Russian-speakers in Ukraine, as well as denazification and neutral, non-nuclear status for Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The conflict must end through a negotiated settlement, not victory over Russia, Scott Bessent has said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky over his insistence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t