ISTANBUL

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be brought to the table for a ceasefire with “sustained pressure.”

“I'm absolutely convinced that with sustained pressure, we will be able to get Putin to the table to agree with a ceasefire, and then other talks coming after that,” Rutte told reporters following a news conference at the White House with US President Donald Trump.

Rutte said the two exchanged views on how they can end the Russia-Ukraine war and how NATO could contribute and what steps could be taken to convince Putin to accept a ceasefire.

He called Trump, given his “powerful position and his vision on this,” “the only one who can sit down with Putin and get him to change his calculus and give him a bit of bandwidth to do that.”

Highlighting the US’s renewed involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine, Rutte noted the close cooperation with the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and relevant European countries within the framework of security commitments.

Earlier at the White House, Trump also expressed his frustration over the lack of progress in the negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.

His remarks came right after the US announced new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment” to a peace process to end the Ukraine war.