President Trump moved to prevent “a horrible massacre” on Friday, calling U.S.-Russia talks in Moscow “productive” but “strongly” calling on Russia’s Putin to stop fighting immediately to end the killing.
U.S. President Donald Trump has appealed to his frequently cited motivations for ending the Ukraine War — to end the slaughter of thousands, in what he has previously called “killing fields” — in a message to Russian Federation President Vladimir asking him to agree to a ceasefire.
Writing on Truth Social, President Trump hailed progress from Thursday’s visit by a U.S. delegation to Moscow as “very good and productive discussions”, saying because of them “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end”. But he also highlighted the plight of the soldiers still fighting in the war, and the real and imminent threat of huge numbers of deaths if battles continue to rage.
Trump revealed he had “strongly requested” — understated language that could imply anything from a simple appeal all the way up to very serious threats, although this wasn’t revealed — that Putin agree to a ceasefire immediately to save lives.
President Trump’s message appeared to specifically cited the situation in the Kursk Oblast in mainland Russia, where Ukrainian troops have pulled back in recent days. Kyiv launched an audacious counter-invasion against Russia there last year, capturing villages inside Russia in a move widely acknowledged as a bid to acquire a bargaining chip to get Ukrainian lands back.
Kyiv forces remained doggedly embedded inside Russia since, but in the last few days the situation has suddenly deteriorated and the Ukrainians appear to be pulling back.
Several sources both Russian and Western have characterised the situation being one of encirclement, and the Ukrainians pulling out of the pocket at the very last moment to avoid being completely annihilated. Indeed, President Trump’s message made clear reference to this apparent state of affairs, writing: “at this very moment, thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military, and are in a very bad and vulnerable position”.
Ukraine, for its part, has totally denied its troops were encircled or retreating, and rather the rash of villages retaken by Russia in recent days are purely because it is reconsolidating its forces in easier-to-defend positions.
Because neither side speaks openly and frankly about their own casualties — which is relatively normal in times of war, when for reasons of public morale casualties are underplayed — knowing exactly how many people have been killed and maimed in the invasion of Ukraine is difficult. In January, President Trump expressed the intelligence on casualties as he knew it, saying:
“We have numbers, almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed. About 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia’s bigger, they have more soldiers to lose. But that’s still no way to run a country.”
Ukraine has claimed this week that 2024 was the most deadly of the war for Russia so far, the country having allegedly sustained more casualties than 2022 and 2023 combined. Of the 434,000 casualties said to have been inflicted on Russian Federation forces in 2024, “approximately 150,000” are claimed to be kills.
Zelensky himself subsequently pushed back on those numbers to some degree, claiming a massive ratio of Ukrainian and Russian kills. As reported then:
Speaking to British journalist Piers Morgan, President Zelensky was asked straight whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s estimates of casualties on both sides of the war were accurate, and responded with figures that suggest a massive differential between Russian and Ukrainian deaths. He said: “Approximately around 350,000 Russians have been killed… further they have around 600-700,000 wounded”.
President Zelensky said the “ratio” of wounded and killed in the conflict was much higher for Russia because “their field medicine is weaker than ours, and they do not bring people who are wounded back,” suggesting it is Ukraine’s understanding that Russia leaves its wounded soldiers to die in the field.
For Ukraine, on the other hand, he said, “the exact numbers are very important for us: 45,100 people are dead, and we have around 390,000 cases of people wounded”.
Assuming the figures are close to correct in all cases, President Zelensky asserted Russia has suffered over seven-and-a-half-times more combat deaths than the Ukrainian army.
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