Live updates: Trump pushes for Ukraine-Russia peace deal; House to consider budget negotiations

BY THE HILL STAFF

© AP

President Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to begin negotiations immediately, with plans to meet in Saudi Arabia, which has unsettled some Republican Senators who want to see the Kremlin leader punished for directing his military to invade Kyiv in 2022.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Vice President Vance on Friday after which Ukraine’s president praised Trump’s determination to end the nearly three-year war in Eastern Europe.

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Zelensky: ‘We believe that Putin will wage war against NATO’

BY SARAH FORTINSKY

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country has intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to target Belarus and warned against the weakening of NATO.

In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Zelensky said his country has intelligence that Putin is planning to conduct a military training operation with 150,000 people, “mostly on the territory of Belarus.” He warned that it could be a similar precursor to the military forces on Ukraine’s border that Putin claimed were for training purposes before launching the full-scale invasion.

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Klobuchar says Adams has become Trump administration’s ‘own political pawn’

BY TARA SUTER

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Sunday that New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has become the Trump administration’s “own political pawn.”

“They have literally taken the mayor of New York City, who was facing and is facing serious charges of bribery, which were going to be expanded, and they have turned him into their own political pawn,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

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Homan pushes back on idea on Adams case being ordered to be dropped for Rikers access

BY TARA SUTER

President Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Sunday pushed back on the idea that prosecutors were ordered to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) by the Department of Justice in exchange for access to Rikers Island.

“It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams, [and in] exchange, he let you into Rikers,” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Homan on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Is that what happened?”

Homan responded to Bash, saying, “That’s ridiculous … [me and] Mayor Adams met [a] couple months ago.”

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