“I’ve had very good talks with Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine,” Trump said of the U.S. negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
President Donald Trump on Friday continued his ongoing attacks against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as tensions between the two leaders exploded onto the public stage this week.
“I’ve been watching this man for years now, as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as the soldiers get decimated,” Trump said on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Friday morning. “I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it.”
The U.S. has been working with international partners to broker peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Over the weekend, several high-level U.S. officials headed to Saudi Arabia to meet with members of the Russian government without Ukraine.
Following the meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the preliminary talks included a decision to re-establish embassy staffing and potential economic benefits for Russia if the war in Ukraine ends. But on Friday, Trump told Kilmeade that he doesn’t think Zelenskyy is “very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you.”
“He’s been at a meetings for three years, and nothing got done,” Trump said. “So, I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He’s been there for three years. He makes it very hard to make deals. But look what’s happened to his country, it’s been demolished.”
Later Friday, during a meeting with governors at the White House, Trump added he has had “very good talks with Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine.”
Trump added that peace talks are the only way to stop more deaths in the war, telling the governors, “Millions of people are killed. I think, far more people than anyone understands. And we have people that better get to the table, get it ended. Should have never happened.”
The White House and the Ukrainian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As the details of potential peace talks began to emerge last week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy was adamant that Ukraine must have a seat at the table.
“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine, never,” Zelenskyy said during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” last week in Munich. “This is the war in Ukraine, against us, and it’s our human losses.”
In that interview, he also praised Trump, telling moderator Kristen Welker that Putin “doesn’t want any peace. But I think he’s really a little bit scared about President Trump, and I think the president has this chance and he’s strong, and I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations.”
The spat between Trump and Zelenskyy intensified this week, spilling into public as Trump on Tuesday said that Zelenskyy “should have never started” the war, which Russia launched when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
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Zelenskyy then accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and pushing Kremlin talking points. In response, Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and a “modestly successful comedian.”
On Friday, Kilmeade repeatedly pressed Trump on Putin, saying, “But Mr. President, but you know who’s to blame for that. But don’t you think it’s Vladimir Putin that did the invasion unwarranted to try to take back land he had no right to? And don’t you think fundamentally, that’s that?”
“Now, both sides want to talk, it seems, so we should just get to that point?” Kilmeade added.
“They only want to talk because of me. If I wasn’t involved, they wouldn’t be talking to each other. And Russia would continue to, you know, go through Ukraine because they are going through, Brian, they’ve taken a lot of land, and Russia would continue to march through Ukraine,” Trump responded, dodging the direct question about which nation is to blame for starting the war.
Later, Kilmeade asked Trump whether “the Russians should be celebrating right now, because they hear the rhetoric coming from the White House.”
Once again, the president demurred, blasting Zelenskyy and saying the Russians “really want to make a deal.”
“I think they really want to make a deal, I do. They found it impossible to make a deal with Zelenskyy as his buildings came down,” Trump told Kilmeade.
As the president’s praise of Russia and condemnation of Ukraine escalated this week, several members of his own party warned against Trump’s escalating rhetoric.
“Here’s where I disagree with the White House: To the extent that the White House said that Ukraine started the war, I disagree. I think Vladimir Putin started the war. I also believe, through bitter experience, that Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He’s a gangster with a Blackhawk,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, after Trump indicated that he believed Ukraine was to blame for the war.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., echoed Kennedy, telling reporters that same day: “Make no mistake about it, that invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet. It was Vladimir Putin.”
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