President Donald Trump’s leadership will soon bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz vowed, assuring that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would sign the deal.
“Under Trump, this war will end. And it will end soon,” Waltz said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital on Friday. “He is the president of peace.”
Waltz defended the Trump administration’s decision to come to the negotiating table with Russia during meetings in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, echoing Thursday’s sentiments from Vice President JD Vance.
“You can’t end a war unless you talk to both sides, and that’s what we’re doing,” Waltz said.
TRUMP’S FRUSTRATIONS WITH ZELENKSYY ESCALATE AS US TURNS UP PRESSURE ON UKRAINE TO REACH PEACE DEAL
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 21, 2025. (John Nacion/Getty Images)
Waltz also said that the U.S. was coordinating with Ukraine, Russia and other European allies to determine everyone’s needs in order to secure a peace deal.
On Thursday, Waltz told reporters at the White House that Trump’s frustration with Zelenskyy was increasing, and that Wednesday’s discussions between U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian officials were focused on helping Ukraine to “understand” the war must end.
“It certainly isn’t in Russia’s interest or in the American people’s interest for this war to grind on forever and ever and ever,” Waltz said on Thursday. “So a key part of his conversation was helping President Zelenskyy understand this war needs to come to an end.”
The increased pressure on Ukraine to agree to a deal comes on the heels of several tense days between Trump and Zelenskyy, as each hurled insults back and forth toward one another after meetings between U.S. and Russian officials.
Ukraine was absent from the meetings, and Zelenskyy told reporters in Turkey that “nobody decides anything behind our back,” after stressing in recent days that Kyiv would not agree to a peace negotiation without Ukraine’s input.
TRUMP AND ZELENSKYY WAR OF WORDS HEATS UP EVEN AS US LOOKS TO WIND DOWN WAR IN UKRAINE
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff meet with Russian officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Associated Press)
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While Zelenskyy accused Trump of perpetuating Russian “disinformation” on Wednesday, Trump took a jab back and labeled Zelenskyy a “dictator” who has failed his country and suggested Ukraine initiated the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Waltz met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, to hash out ways to end the conflict.
U.S. officials also have met with Ukrainian officials about a peace deal, and Kellogg said Wednesday in a post on X that the U.S. remains committed to ending the war and finding ways to establish “sustainable peace.”