Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service,
coming to you live from our studios in central London.
I'm Julian Marshall.
President Trump is still in a rush to conclude a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Maybe he's mindful that he'll soon reach 100 days in office.
His envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been in Moscow again today for talks with President Putin.
It's his fourth such encounter with the Russian leader.
And afterwards, Yuri Ushakov,
a key aide to President Putin who attended the talks, gave his assessment.
This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together,
not only on Ukraine, but also on a number of other international issues.
As for the Ukrainian crisis itself,
the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of Russia and Ukraine.
And before getting on a plane to Rome for the Pope's funeral,
President Trump insisted that Russia and Ukraine are also closer to reaching a deal.
And he mentioned a casualty figure that has not been verified.
We're going to make our country rich,
but we're going to try and get out of war so that we can save 5,000 people a week.
And that's what my aim is.
I want to save 5,000 young men.