The United States has dropped enough hints that it does not want to drag on with the Russia-Ukraine war and now President Donald Trump delivered the massive blow on Wednesday as he slammed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement on Crimea.
“The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country. I have nothing to do with Russia, but have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here.” This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion. Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired? The area also houses, for many years before “the Obama handover,” major Russian submarine bases. It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about!” Trump wrote.
Trump’s comments came a few hours after a meeting in London aimed at bringing about an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine had been downgraded after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he wouldn’t attend.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that Trump has given an ultimatum to Zelensky to accept a standing peace offer “by the end of the day,” or risk the US walking away from peace talks. “Not by the end of the day today,” Leavitt told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, contradicting some media reports.
Leavitt maintained that Trump is growing more frustrated and “he needs to see this thing come to an end.” She added that the Ukrainian president is moving in “the wrong direction” when it comes to peace talks and that Zelensky “has been trying to litigate this peace negotiation in the press, and that’s unacceptable to the president.” “His patience is running very thin,” the press secretary added

Emotions have run high today: Zelenskyy’s reply

Zelenskyy said that “emotions have run high today” after talks on the ongoing war in his country were held in London.
Representatives from Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States met for the talks.
“The sides expressed their views and respectfully received each other’s positions. It’s important that each side was not just a participant but contributed meaningfully,” Zelensky said on X, noting that “the American side shared its vision” alongside Ukraine and the other European nations.
In what seemed to be an indirect response to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Zelensky being unwilling to recognize Russian control of Crimea, Zelensky vowed Ukraine would abide by its constitution. He also shared a screenshot of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s 2018 Crimea Declaration which rejected Russia’s occupation of the peninsula.
“Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners — in particular the USA — will act in line with its strong decisions,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance has broken his silence after two days of brutal trolling on social media about being among the last few visitors that Pope Francis met hours before his death. While people have started congratulating him, many people called him anti-Christian and blamed him for the Pope’s death. As Vance was in India with his family, he opened up about the coincidence and said he thought about it a lot in the past two days.
Vance said it was pretty crazy but a great blessing for him that he could meet the Pope in his final hours. “I’ve thought a lot about that. I mean, it’s pretty crazy, actually,” Vance said. “And, obviously, when I saw him, I didn’t know that he had less than 24 hours still on this earth. I think it was a great blessing.”
Vance was one of the last officials to meet with Francis. The vice president, who is Catholic, held formal talks with the Vatican’s secretary of state over the weekend before an informal face-to-face with Francis the following day. Francis’ death on April 21 came less than 24 hours after he met with Vance.
“I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day, because I did,” Vance said. He said he will always remember Pope Francis as a great pastor, his true expressions of Christian love.

Will JD Vance attend Pope’s funeral?

JD Vance said he is planning neither to attend nor to skip the funeral; he said it has not been given much thought about who is going to attend the funeral from the part of the US government.
On Pope’s objection to President Donald Trump’s policies, including that of deportation, JD Vance said a lot of people, especially the legacy media of America, made the Holy Father, even his life and death about US politics. “He was, obviously, a much broader figure than the US. Yes, I am aware of the disagreements he had over some of the policies of our administration; he also had a lot of agreements with some other policies. I am not gonna soil the man’s legacy by talking about politics,” JD said.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) night said that the top civilian and military leadership will meet on Thursday (April 24, 2025) to formulate an appropriate response to India’s move to suspend the Indus Water Treaty and downgrade diplomatic ties.

India on Wednesday temporarily suspended the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 and announced downgrading diplomatic ties with Pakistan, including expulsion of its military attaches in view of cross-border links to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

Pahalgam terrorist attack: Follow LIVE updates on April 23, 2025

“A session of the National Security Committee will be held under the chair of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,” Mr. Asif said in a statement.

He added that decisions will be taken to give “an appropriate response to the Indian steps”.

All services chiefs and key cabinet ministers would attend the meeting.

Such meetings are summoned on key occasions when the issues related to national security are to be discussed.  In New Delhi, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met Tuesday evening under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and firmed up the responses to the terror attack.

The CCS also decided to close the Integrated Check Post at Attari with immediate effect.

Pakistani nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and any such visas issued in the past to Pakistani nationals are deemed cancelled.