US President Donald Trump said that when he met Russian President Vladimir Putin this month “probably” with Russia, he effectively accused Ukrainian President Vokrainia of blaming Moscow’s invasion.
Speaking to reporters after we and Russian officials met at the first round of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Trump said Kiev had been denied a seat in negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine. The complaint was dismissed.
“I think I have the power to end this war. I think it’s going very well. But today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you were there for three years. Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago Estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
“You’d never started it before. You could have traded. I could have traded for Ukraine.”
Trump said he is “more confident” to reach an agreement following talks in Riyadh led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“They were very good. Russia wants to do something, they want to stop the savage and wild bars,” he said.
Asked whether his administration would support Russia’s election calls in Ukraine as part of the peace deal, Trump claimed without evidence that Zelensky had a recognition rating of just 4%, and the country was He pointed out that elections have been suspended under martial law.
In an opinion conducted by the Kyiv Institute of International Sociology in December, 52% of respondents said they trusted Zelenskyy and had fallen 12 percentage points since February.
“Yeah, when you want a seat at a table, I think you know… Ukrainians will have to say, “It’s been a while since we voted.” Trump said. .
“It’s not Russia. It comes from me and it comes from many other countries too.”
Trump’s comments came after Zelensky earlier said he wanted to assure that Washington and Moscow would not determine the terms of the deal “behind our backs.”
“In Ukraine, we cannot make decisions on how to end the war in Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters in Turkier, where he spoke with Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the US State Department, in a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, Rubio and Lavrov agreed to “appoint each high-level team to begin working on the path to ending as soon as possible.”
US national security adviser Mike Waltz later told reporters in Riyadh that the negotiations would include discussions on territories and post-dispute security assurances.
European leaders have struggled to form a unified response to negotiations amid concerns that Trump is leaning towards giving Moscow drastic concessions to pursue the deal.
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said this week he was willing to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, but French President Emmanuel Macron would send a limited number of troops “outside of any conflict zone.” He said he would consider this.
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz on Monday dismissed post-war security forces debate before an agreement that it was “very inappropriate.”
Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tass said he did not expect his country to send troops to Ukraine.
France is set to host European leaders for second round discussions on Wednesday’s issues after Monday’s emergency summit failed to create a cohesive attitude.
During his press conference at Mar-A-Lago, Trump expressed support for the use of European peacekeeping forces, but suggested that the US military would not be involved.
“If they want to do that, that’s great, I’m everything for it,” Trump said. “If they want to do that, I’m everything for it.”
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