WEST PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump stated on Sunday (Feb 16) he might meet “very quickly” with Vladimir Putin, including he believes his Russian counterpart genuinely desires to cease preventing in Ukraine.
“No time set, nevertheless it may very well be very quickly,” Trump instructed reporters, hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to minimize expectations of upcoming high-level talks in Riyadh on ending the warfare.
With Rubio set to steer a high-level American delegation on the discussions with Russian officers in Saudi Arabia’s capital within the coming days, a flurry of diplomacy was happening because the brutal Ukraine warfare nears its third anniversary.
Trump, addressing reporters after a flight on Air Pressure One, stated his workforce has been talking “lengthy and arduous” with Russian officers, together with his Center East envoy Steve Witkoff whom the president stated met with Putin for about three hours not too long ago.
“I feel he desires to cease preventing,” Trump stated of Putin.
Requested whether or not he believes Putin desires to grab the whole lot of Ukraine, Trump stated: “That was my query to him.
“If he’ll go on … that may have induced me a giant downside,” Trump added.
“I feel he desires to finish it, they usually wish to finish it quick. Each of them,” he stated, including “Zelenskyy desires to finish it too.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the meantime stated on Sunday he believes Russia is getting ready to “wage warfare” in opposition to a weakened NATO ought to Trump dilute US support for the alliance.
Trump appeared to dismiss Zelenskyy’s remarks, telling reporters he was “not even a bit bit” involved in regards to the Ukrainian chief’s messaging.
The Republican had repeatedly insisted he would finish the Ukraine battle in a single day if he returned to the White Home, however Rubio harassed it might “not be simple” to resolve such a long-running, bloody and complicated battle.
“A course of in the direction of peace isn’t a one-meeting factor,” America’s high diplomat stated in an interview with CBS on the sidelines of the Munich Safety Convention.
