US House Speaker Mike Johnson stated Thursday that there is “no appetite” for another funding bill for Ukraine, emphasizing the need to bring the war to an end.
“We have to bring it (the war) to an end. And I can tell you that our European allies understand the necessity as well,”Johnson said during an interview with Newsmax at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC.
His comments follow recent tensions between former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump recently referred to Zelensky as a “dictator” and warned that he must act quickly to secure peace with Russia or risk losing his country. The two leaders have exchanged sharp remarks, with Zelensky accusing Trump of falling for Russian disinformation, while Trump dismissed him as a “modestly successful comedian” and blamed him for the war’s outbreak in 2022.
Johnson defended Trump’s approach, arguing that his strategy aims to create conditions for real negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. “When you start a mediation and you start an arbitration between two parties, you don’t bring them into the room for that first meeting. You do it separately,” he said, in response to Zelensky’s frustration over not being included in recent US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.
Trump reiterated Wednesday that Zelensky was “very upset” about being excluded from those discussions, as diplomatic efforts to end the war continue.
