Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, October 22, 2025, that he supports President Donald Trump’s proposal to freeze fighting along the current front lines while the parties work on a longer term settlement.
Speaking to reporters in Oslo, Zelenskyy called the idea a “good compromise,” though he voiced doubt that the Kremlin would accept it.
The comment aligns with Trump’s recent public line. Earlier in the week he told reporters that the sides could “negotiate something later,” but should first “cut and stop at the battle line.”
That framing, a halt at existing positions paired with talks, has dominated diplomatic discussion since the White House paused plans for a leader level meeting with Russia.
Moscow rejects a halt in place
Russia publicly dismissed any immediate stop along current lines. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow seeks a “long term, sustainable peace,” not a freeze he argued would ignore the conflict’s origins.
The Russian position has remained broadly unchanged since the August encounter between Trump and President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Russian officials continue to press maximal aims in and around the eastern theater, and have rebuffed proposals that do not meet those terms.
That hard line is one reason Washington has cooled on near term summits, with the White House signaling that talks without concrete movement would be a poor use of time. Reuters reported the Kremlin’s insistence that no meeting date had been agreed, which Moscow used to argue that nothing had been “postponed.”
Summit planning stalls, diplomacy reroutes
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone with Lavrov this week to test whether groundwork existed for a Trump–Putin session in Budapest. Afterward, U.S. officials said an additional in person meeting was unnecessary and that there were no plans for a Trump–Putin meeting in the immediate future.
The White House characterization of the call as “productive,” yet insufficient to justify a sit down, reflects a tactical pause as officials gauge Moscow’s willingness to engage.
Trump told reporters he did not want a “wasted meeting,” a nod to the failed Alaska summit in August, when both leaders departed without concessions.
European and U.S. officials have since focused on coordinating around the frontline freeze concept and on testing whether ancillary steps, such as deconfliction mechanisms or exchanges, could be packaged alongside a pause in major combat.
Europe aligns on a ceasefire concept
European leaders moved in parallel. A group statement from senior European governments backed an immediate halt in place as the basis for talks, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte headed to Washington on Wednesday to brief U.S. officials on the latest proposals.
Bloomberg reported Europe’s push for a freeze at present battle lines as a practical starting point, while underscoring that any settlement must respect international law.
The allied message gives the administration political cover to keep pressing the pause, even as Russia resists. It also signals to Kyiv that Western backers see value in stopping the shooting now, then working through the harder questions of security guarantees, reconstruction financing and contested territories at the negotiating table.
That staging mirrors Zelenskyy’s own description of the freeze as a compromise worth exploring, pending Moscow’s response.
