Trump Says All-Europe Peace Is 'Very Close,' but Ukraine Wasn't in the Room

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a comprehensive peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is "very close" and could extend to "all of Europe." The same day, he confirmed he met Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House. He did not meet a Ukrainian representative.

The remarks followed a White House ceremony marking a localized ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city. First Lady Melania Trump brokered that deal, which Ukraine and Russia confirmed. Both sides said their forces would stop firing at 01:00 GMT on October 27. The agreement covers evacuating residents and delivering aid. Melania Trump publicly discussed her efforts for the first time during a White House meeting with a small delegation of Russian and Ukrainian representatives.

One is a city-level truce in a single occupied city. The other is a claim that a deal covering the entire continent is near. U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine have yet to produce a ceasefire, with the sides divided over territorial concessions and security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump's meeting with Dmitriev, and the absence of a Ukrainian counterpart, raises the question of whether Kyiv's interests are being represented in talks about its own future.

The stakes are not abstract. The war has caused more than one million casualties and left Russia occupying roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. A U.S.-brokered agreement encompassing all of Europe would reshape security arrangements on the continent.

What the "big agreement" would contain is not known. Trump did not describe terms. The Oleshky truce is not a national ceasefire, and it is not yet clear whether it will hold or expand.