'Stop shooting and sign a deal': Trump to Putin after meeting Zelenskyy

US President Donald Trump voiced his disappointment towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and called upon him to cease hostilities and enter into a peace agreement with Ukraine.
While speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Trump said, “I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal.”
“We have the confines of a deal, I believe. And I want him to sign it,” he added.
This comes following the US President's meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.
After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Rome, Trump took to Truth Social to criticise Russian President Vladimir Putin for recent attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns over the last few days,” Trump wrote. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war—he’s just stringing me along—and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions’? Too many people are dying!!!”
Earlier, on April 25, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow and urged him to sign the US-brokered peace deal to halt the three-year conflict.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio emphasized the importance of the coming week, saying he believes the two sides are “close” to reaching a deal.
“We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to an agreement to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC. “I think this is going to be a very critical week,” he added.
Trump has been actively pushing for a ceasefire, reportedly proposing a deal that would see the US formally recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea and tacitly accept Moscow’s control over other territories in eastern and southern Ukraine.
This proposal has been met with resistance from Kyiv and its European allies, who insist that any territorial questions should be addressed only after a complete ceasefire and should be based on the existing line of control.
They are also pushing for robust security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any agreement.