The US leader believes a deal between Kiev and Moscow is quite close, according to Alar Karis

US President Donald Trump has promised not to walk away from the Ukraine peace process, stating that an end to the hostilities was "quite close," Estonian leader Alar Karis has claimed.

The Estonian president revealed he had a conversation with Trump at Pope Francis' funeral on Saturday, where the two were seated together. Ahead of the ceremony, Trump also had a brief meeting with Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky.

Karis said he had urged Trump to keep the Ukraine peace process moving and not to "walk away at some point." The US president allegedly pledged to stay engaged in the negotiations, "saying we are quite close because he had just met Zelensky. I didn't ask for many details about what that meeting brought," Karis told Estonian broadcaster ERR.

The two leaders also discussed strained transatlantic relations, with Trump insisting he valued them too, according to Karis. "These are important to both of us, not only from a European perspective but also from the American perspective, and President Donald Trump agreed with that. Now we have to see how to make these relations better than they currently are," the Estonian president said.

Shortly after the Zelensky meeting and the Pope's funeral, Trump accused Russia of "shooting missiles" into Ukraine for "no reason" and threatened the country with new sanctions.

Moscow has maintained that it targets only military installations and facilities used by Kiev's forces, rejecting accusations of deliberately striking civilian sites. Following a brief lull in fighting during the Easter ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin last weekend, the Russian military carried out multiple long-range strikes against Ukrainian military and industrial targets over the week.

"There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions'?" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The warning came just as the Russian president reiterated Moscow's readiness for unconditional talks with Kiev. The president reaffirmed the commitment during talks with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

(RT.com)