Donald Trump stated in an interview given to the Reuters agency in the Oval Office that Vladimir Putin is willing to enter into a peace agreement, but Ukraine's attitude and its leaders is the main barrier to the end of the war. The U.S. president estimated that Putin seemed inclined to enter into an agreement, while Ukraine, in his opinion, was little prepared to do so.
When asked about the main obstacle on the way to peace, he pointed out Volodymyr Zelenski, stressing that it is essential to convince the Ukrainian president to accept a possible agreement.
Trump frequently criticized both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Zelenski, but this time he seemed more pessimistic than Ukrainian president – assessed the agency.
Washington ready to help?
When asked about the issue of safety guarantees for Ukraine and about their ability to trust on intelligence cooperation with the United States, Trump pointed out that he supported this solution. He stated that if an agreement could be reached, Washington would be willing to help.
At the same time, he pointed out the immense losses suffered by both sides of the conflict, assessing them as tens of thousands of soldiers per month, and stressed that he was besides counting on Europe's greater commitment in further action.
The number of Russian obituary increased
As the BBC station reported in late December, in the last 10 months Russian losses in the war against Ukraine have grown at the fastest rate since the beginning of the conflict. Since February 2022, the BBC has been conducting independent monitoring of the number of Russian soldiers killed, cooperating in this respect with the opposition Mediazona portal and a group of volunteers. According to these figures throughout 2025 – despite expanding efforts to advance peace under force from U.S. president Donald Trump – in Russia 40 percent more military obituary was published than a year earlier.
The BBC has so far identified names of nearly 160 1000 people who died fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. The station creates lists of the deceased on the basis of information confirmed in authoritative communications, press, social media, obituary and during direct visits to cemeteries.
However, the actual failure rate may be much higher. According to experts, BBC analysis most likely covers only 45 to 65 percent of all victims. This would mean that the actual number of Russian soldiers killed could scope from about 243 to up to 352 000 people.
