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KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed the “extraordinary” Gaza ceasefire as bringing hope that US President Donald Trump could broker an end to the Russian invasion of his country.
“When peace is achieved for one part of the world, it brings more hope for peace in other regions,” Zelensky said on social media.
He added: “If a ceasefire and peace have been achieved for the Middle East, the leadership and determination of global actors can certainly work for us too, in Ukraine.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, setting off the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Tens of thousands have been killed, millions forced from their homes and much of eastern and southern Ukraine decimated.
Trump had once vowed he could end the war in a matter of hours, but despite several rounds of talks and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, there has been no significant progress toward a peace deal.
Russia has refused multiple calls for a ceasefire and outlined hard-line demands, essentially calling for Kyiv to capitulate in exchange for peace.
The US leader has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin in recent weeks and recently said he could see Ukraine reclaiming every inch of territory seized by Russia.
Moscow’s army currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula which it captured and annexed in 2014.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also urged Trump to carry the momentum from brokering the Israel-Hamas ceasefire into efforts on Ukraine.
“We also hope that the American president will now use the influence he has exerted on the parties involved in the (Middle East) to work with us on the Russian government,” Merz said in Egypt, where he was to attend a summit of world leaders including Trump.
Merz added that he will discuss the Russia-Ukraine war settlement with Trump at the summit.

AMSTERDAM: NATO chief Mark Rutte mocked Russia on Monday over the “limping” condition of one of its submarines as Russian authorities denied it had been forced to surface because of technical problems.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet said the diesel-powered submarine Novorossiysk had surfaced off France to comply with navigation rules in the English Channel, and rejected reports it had suffered a serious malfunction.
But Dutch authorities said at the weekend that the submarine was under tow in the North Sea. And Rutte, in a speech in Slovenia, said the vessel was “broken.”
“Now, in effect, there is hardly any Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean left. There’s a lone and broken Russian submarine limping home from patrol,” he said.
“What a change from the 1984 Tom Clancy novel ‘The Hunt for Red October’. Today, it seems more like the hunt for the nearest mechanic.”
VChK-OGPU, a shadowy Telegram channel that publishes purported Russian security leaks, reported on September 27 that fuel was leaking into the hold of the Novorossiysk, raising the risk of an explosion.
NATO’s Maritime Command published photographs on October 9 of what it said was a French navy frigate observing a Russian submarine operating on the surface off the coast of Brittany.
“NATO stands ready to defend our Alliance with constant vigilance and maritime awareness across the Atlantic,” it posted on X, without naming the submarine.
On Saturday, the Dutch defense ministry said the Dutch navy had escorted the Novorossiysk and a accompanying towing vessel, the Yakov Grebelsky, in the North Sea.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet said on Monday that the submarine was conducting a “scheduled inter-fleet transit” after completing tasks in the Mediterranean.
State news agency TASS said the vessel, which entered service in 2014, was part of a group of submarines that carry Kalibr cruise missiles.