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'Time for Trump to play his cards': Ukrainian official 'optimistic' about peace but warns 'Russia can't be trusted'
11 March 2025, 19:24
Ukraine accepts 30-day ceasefire deal: Ukrainian adviser reacts
A Ukrainian government official has told LBC that Donald Trump must put pressure on Russia to accept a peace deal Kyiv accepted on Tuesday evening.
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Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's ministry of strategic industries, told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr that the US president "has sufficient leverage" to achieve "peace through force".
It came after Ukraine agreed to an offer from the US for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Russia, with a view to launching talks for "sustainable peace".
The US will now take the deal to Russia, with Secretary of State saying that the "ball is in their court".
Mr Sak said that he had mixed feelings about the likelihood of a lasting peace, because Russia has form for not keeping to their word - but that also in his view Mr Trump was likely to have more sway with the Kremlin than his predecessor Joe Biden.
He told Andrew: "Of course, we have no grounds to be optimistic about Russians sticking to their commitment and agreeing to achieve peace now.
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"At the same time, the difference between now and then is a different president in the White House. And we believe that despite all the rhetoric, it is for sure that the President of the United States of America has sufficient leverage to achieve what he himself calls peace through force."
He added: "The President of America has cards, right? Time for him to actually use them. And, and we're really hopeful, quietly optimistic, but of course we'll be on guard because we have a bad history of dealing with Russians.
"We know that they're not capable of honouring the agreements. They've broken, what, more than 25 ceasefires in the past ten years. So it's a challenge.
"But look, it's early days and today was a good day. Let's hope that the dynamic stays positive."
Mr Sak said that he hoped that the US would be "able to use the leverage to force Russia, because we want to end this war more than anybody else in the world."
