The US President said on Wednesday that the consequences if Russia snubbed the truce would be “very bad”, but insisted he did not believe it would come to that.
His intervention came after it was reported Putin was prepared to delay any agreement that would slow the momentum of his forces on the battlefield.
Asked about pressuring his Russian counterpart into a deal, Trump said: “Yeah. We can. But I hope it’s not going to be necessary.
The proposed temporary ceasefire was thrashed out by Ukrainian and US officials during eight hours of talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
US officials had discussed the plans with their Russian counterparts on the telephone, and Steve Witkoff, the US envoy, was going to Moscow this week for talks, the White House said on Wednesday.
On Wednesday night, John Healey, Britain’s Defence Secretary, delivered a message to Putin in which he urged him to “accept the ceasefire”.
Speaking at the Paris Defence Security Forum, Healey said: “These are decisive days for peace in Ukraine. The Ukrainians want peace, we all want peace.
“I say to President Putin: over to you now. You say you want to talk: prove it. Accept the ceasefire, begin negotiations, end the war. Make no mistake, the pressure is now on Putin.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, earlier told reporters that Russia was waiting to hear from Washington, and it was expected there would be a phone call between Trump and Putin.
Ukraine’s agreement to support the ceasefire resulted in Washington restarting intelligence-sharing and weapons deliveries immediately.
Radek Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, confirmed on Wednesday that US supplies to Ukraine via Poland had “returned to previous levels”.
He also said Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet services, some of which are funded by Warsaw, had been resumed.
Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, has said Kyiv could cede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal.
Asked whether territorial concessions were discussed during the talks in Saudi Arabia, he said: “Well, we had conversations.”
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President, told reporters in Kyiv he would not officially recognise territories seized by Russia under any deal.
“We are fighting for our independence. Therefore, we will not recognise any occupied territories as Russia’s. This is a fact,” he said.
“Our people have fought for this, our heroes died. How many injured, how many passed. No one will forget about it... This is the most important red line. We will not let anyone forget about this crime against Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy added that he had no “trust” in Russia, despite having agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day truce to Moscow. “I have emphasised this many times, none of us trust the Russians,” he said.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials told the Telegraph the ceasefire proposal was partially about calling Putin’s bluff on claims he was prepared to broker a peace deal.
US President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin Photo / Getty Images
The Telegraph understands that if Putin rejects the peace deal, the UK will back America in any further sanctions it places on Moscow.
A senior defence source said: “We will throw our weight behind Trump and anything he does to get him to the table. Only he can do that. If he’s going to do that by tough economic circumstances, then of course we’ll do that.”
Healey spent the day in talks with his counterparts from Germany, France, Italy and Poland as they discussed how to ensure a lasting peace in Ukraine.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the Defence Staff, also attended the talks as military chiefs discussed what each country could offer Ukraine in the event of peace.
It is understood that Europe does not believe the current minerals peacekeeping deal is enough, and that any European contingent in Ukraine will not simply be a “tripwire force of just boots on the ground”.
A senior military source described it as a “reassurance force” whose presence would “help make Putin think really hard that he can simply rearm and reinvade”.
“It’s reinforcing the confidence in the ceasefire and seeking to get Ukraine on a path towards peace,” the source said.
“It is getting their airspace back and getting the Black Sea back into international waters. It’s Ukraine having confidence in their own nation to start the economic journey and get displaced people back to their country.”
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s Defence Minister, told the defence conference the coming together of European nations showed that “the giant is awakening”.
“Our civilisation is under threat,” he warned, adding that despite this he was confident Europe would “be successful in facing this challenge”.
Sebastien Lecornu, the French Defence Minister, suggested a peace deal could come as soon as “tomorrow” when Witkoff travels to Moscow to meet with Putin.
He added that there were now 15 countries who were interested in being part of the “coalition of the willing” to help Ukraine.
Lecornu stressed security in the Black Sea as well as the safety of nuclear plants in Ukraine was crucial if peace was to be meaningful. He also warned of Europe’s dependency on Musk’s Starlink and called for like-minded nations to “move forward more quickly on aerospace and not be left behind”.
Russian forces currently occupy about 20% of Ukraine, with any ceasefire likely to freeze the current front line.
On Wednesday, Kyiv was also on the cusp of losing its foothold in Russia’s southern Kursk region, which could have been used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations over land.
Meanwhile, the UK revoked accreditation to a Russian diplomat in response to Moscow’s decision to expel two British envoys this week.
“It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure and has no regard for the dangerous escalatory impact of this,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.
