Former U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said Thursday on Newsmax that President Donald Trump’s credibility with both Ukraine and Russia is a key reason progress is being made toward a peace deal in the ongoing war.

“One of the reasons why I think we’re even making progress here, we’re talking about a peace deal, is because Donald Trump has credibility on both sides,” Grenell said during an appearance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”

The comments followed a deadly Russian missile strike in Kyiv that killed at least 12 people and came amid escalating tensions over Crimea. Trump recently said Ukraine could lose its entire country without a peace deal and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for sabotaging peace prospects by rejecting the idea of giving up Crimea.

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