Trump says he wants Zelenskyy to 'make a deal' with Russia

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Oct 20) urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal with Russia - redoubling pressure on the Ukrainian leader even as Moscow grinds on with the war it launched four years ago.

Trump also said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Stephen Hubbard - an American taken captive by Moscow's forces years earlier in Ukraine - in a fresh sign of his pivot back to Moscow.

"We want Zelenskyy to make a deal. He can make a deal. He could have made a deal two years ago when we had our little chat in the Oval Office," Trump told reporters in the same room.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy had a bruising televised confrontation in the Oval Office in February 2025, shortly after the Ukraine-sceptic US president returned to office.

"He's going to have to want to make a deal, because I don't think his people are going to stand for it any longer," Trump said Tuesday.

Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured since Trump partially lifted sanctions to strike a diesel-supply deal with Putin and slammed Zelenskyy as a warmonger for Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The Ukrainian leader met Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday for talks aimed at easing the tensions.

Zelenskyy hailed the resumption of US intelligence sharing on looming Russian strikes, but insisted Kyiv must be included in any future talks on its fate after meetings with US envoys.

Ukraine has been increasingly alarmed by Trump's return to effectively blaming Kyiv for a failure to end the war that began with Moscow's February 2022 invasion, and by his warm words towards Putin.

Trump indicated that a deal with Russia to free Hubbard could be near.

"I've been talking to President Putin about Mr Hubbard. I've been talking to him at length. I've asked him to release him. Let's see what happens," Trump said in response to a question from an AFP journalist.

"Just stick with me," Trump added. "Just you remember that question a couple of days from now, because I do things that nobody else can do."