Trump’s Mediation on Ukraine

Welcome to the Daily News Brief, CFR’s flagship morning newsletter summarizing the top global news and analysis of the day. 

Subscribe to the Daily News Brief to receive it every weekday morning.

Top of the Agenda

Trump wrote that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” begin negotiations toward a ceasefire and peace deal after speaking separately with both leaders yesterday. In a social media post, he suggested the United States would only have an indirect role in the talks, writing that the two warring parties will be at the forefront. Trump’s post did not threaten punitive measures against Russia if the peace effort fails; instead, he touted trade opportunities for both Russia and Ukraine if it succeeds. The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, for their part, adopted new sanctions on Russia after the calls.

The latest diplomacy. 

• Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both before and after a long call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. On the second call with Zelenskyy, leaders of the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy also joined. 
• Yesterday’s calls follow direct low-level talks between Russia and Ukraine last Friday during which the countries agreed to swap one thousand prisoners each. In that meeting, Russia maintained a hardline demand of asking Ukrainian forces to fully withdraw from Ukrainian territories that Russia claims as its own.
• Putin said after his call with Trump that Russia was willing to work with Ukraine on a memorandum of positions for a peace settlement. It could include a ceasefire under certain conditions, he added. Ukraine and the United States had previously sought a 30-day truce before a long-term peace settlement.

The road ahead.

• Trump said the Vatican offered to host the Russia-Ukraine talks, praising the idea.
• U.S. Vice President JD Vance repeated a previous Trump administration threat yesterday to walk away from peace mediation if Washington deemed progress unsatisfactory. Both Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the United States to stay engaged in the peace process.
• The sanctions approved by Brussels and London today target a fleet of tankers that Moscow uses to move oil.

“Instead of walking away from involvement in peace talks, if Trump wants to succeed as a peacemaker, it would make more sense for him to test the proposition that even somewhat more pressure on Moscow—without requiring the large-scale U.S. financial commitments he opposes—could help end the war.”

—CFR expert Rebecca Lissner and the Brookings Institution’s Philip H. Gordon, Foreign Policy

Across the Globe

Israel’s plan to ‘take control’ of Gaza. Israel is deploying “massive force to take control of all of the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Five aid trucks entered the territory yesterday, Israel’s defense ministry said. Canada, France, and the United Kingdom called Israel’s plan to allow only limited food to enter Gaza “wholly inadequate” and threatened “concrete actions” if Israel did not stop its new offensive and allow in more aid. 

Pandemic treaty vote. A total of 124 countries voted to support a new World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic preparedness treaty yesterday; only 11 abstained and none voted against. The agreement aims to reduce inequalities in countries’ access to vaccines and treatments. The United States is in the process of withdrawing from the WHO, while China today pledged to contribute an extra $500 million to the organization over the next five years.

China’s pushback on chips. China’s commerce ministry said yesterday that the Trump administration’s warning last Tuesday against worldwide use of advanced Huawei chips “seriously undermined” the recent U.S.-China agreement to lower tariffs. Washington removed language warning that use of the chips “anywhere in the world” violates U.S. export controls, but Beijing said that it still needed to “correct its mistakes.” Spokespeople for the White House and U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately comment.

Deportation shield lifted. The U.S. Supreme Court backed the Trump administration’s efforts to strip temporary deportation protection from some 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States. The Joe Biden administration extended the protection into 2026 citing political and economic crisis in Venezuela, but Trump administration officials argued conditions there had improved and that Venezuelans were a strain on the United States.

Battery giant hits the stock market. The Chinese battery firm known by its acronym CATL became 2025’s biggest stock listing after debuting on the Hong Kong stock exchange today. It supplies about one in three of the world’s electric cars, including those made by Tesla. The company is blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Defense, which says it is a Chinese military company; CATL denies that claim. The funds from its stock debut will be used to build new factories, including one in Hungary.

El Salvador detains anti-corruption lawyer. Authorities detained lawyer Ruth López on Sunday night, her organization Cristosal said. López has gained prominence for accusing the Nayib Bukele administration of corruption. The Salvadoran attorney general’s office said in a social media post that López stole government money; the Americas director of Human Rights Watch called the detention an escalation in the Bukele administration’s “effort to silence dissent.” 

South Africa’s pitch on Starlink. Pretoria plans to offer Starlink and other tech companies a way to bypass laws on Black empowerment that Elon Musk has criticized, unnamed sources told Bloomberg. The offer to Starlink comes ahead of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s White House visit tomorrow. The firms would have options for alternative contributions to address inequalities in the country. South Africa’s government said the new rules are part of a broad strategy and not aimed at any individual company.

Sudan’s military names PM. The head of Sudan’s army appointed a prime minister for the first time since civil war broke out in 2023. The previous prime minister had stepped down in 2022. Appointee Kamil al-Taib Idris is a former UN official and Sudanese presidential candidate. It was not immediately clear how much authority he would have, but a top African Union (AU) official welcomed the appointment and said it supported efforts to restore democratic governance in Sudan.

What’s Next

• Today, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.

• Today, G7 finance ministers and central bank governors begin a meeting in Canada.

• Tomorrow, the EU and AU hold a ministerial meeting in Brussels.