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15th March 2025
11:09am GMT

Donald Trump has issued a grim warning that the current situation could lead to World War III if peace efforts fail in Ukraine.
Speaking to the Justice Department yesterday, the US president said a global conflict would be 'a war like no other' - but talked up his chances of getting Putin to sign a peace deal, saying 'we're in pretty good shape'.
He also claimed Vladimir Putin has 'respect' for America and urged the Russian president to release Ukrainian soldiers 'surrounded' in Kursk.
Trump said: "I think we're doing well with Russia, we're speaking with President Putin, we want to get the war over."
He repeated a vastly inflated figure of how much US military aid had been sent to Ukraine, citing $350 billion which has been proven to be a false figure.
He went on to say: "We've had some very good calls today with Russia, and with Ukraine, they've agreed to a ceasefire if we can get it with Russia. And it's not easy. It's a tough one.
"I think we have it, I think we have it, but this could lead to World War III, very easily, could very easily lead to World War III. But I think we're in pretty good shape, a lot better than where we were before we got involved.
"That was heading into World War III territory, that would've been a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, and other types of weapons that you don't even wanna know about."
Ukraine backed proposals from the White House for a 30-day ceasefire but that has been rejected by Russia.
In his first comments on the ceasefire on Thursday, the Russian president said the 'the idea is correct, and we certainly support it' but questioned the details, and suggested certain demands would have to be met for the Kremlin to fully agree to it.
However, G7 allies, including the UK, said on Friday that they were united in calling for a ceasefire with 'no conditions' to halt the fighting in Ukraine.
"Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, in a joint statement 'reaffirmed' support for Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity and called on Russia to agree a 'ceasefire on equal terms'.
They also condemned North Korean, Iranian and Chinese support for the invasion.
Lammy said: "I think that there is a unified approach that we need an enduring peace that lasts, I think that there is unity that now is the time for a ceasefire with no conditions.
"Ukraine has set their position out. It is now for Russia to accept it. I think that there is a coalition of the willing emerging to give Ukraine the security architecture and arrangements that they need, and to get into the detail of any monitoring of that ceasefire, going forward.
"On all of that, there was common ground, and the G7 family came together."
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