In an interview, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not have strong positions for negotiations with Russia.
Trump claimed that Russia has “cards up its sleeve” since it has already seized a significant portion of Ukrainian territory. According to Trump, Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal,” but in the former U.S. president’s opinion, he doesn’t need to, as he could take the entire country if he wanted to. Trump also criticized Zelensky, saying he was not invited to negotiations with Russia because he had “badly conducted negotiations,” which, in Trump’s view, led to the war that could have been ended much sooner.
“The war started because of the wrong statements by Biden and Zelensky,” Trump emphasized. He stated that Russia could have been “easily discouraged,” and believes the conflict should never have happened. Trump pointed out that the deaths and destruction of cities have become an unnecessary tragedy.
He added that if the war had started, it should have been “immediately resolved and settled,” rather than dragging on as it did under Zelensky.
