Trump outraged at Zelenskyy saying end of Russia-Ukraine war could be ‘very far away’
US president responds to Ukrainian president’s most recent interview, following blow-up in the Oval Office last week
The rift between Washington and Kyiv over a potential ceasefire in the war with Russia deepened on Monday as Donald Trump was said to be considering cutting military aid to Ukraine and expressed new outrage at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for saying that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”.
In a post to social media on Monday, Trump posted a link to an Associated Press story
outlining Zelenskyy’s comments and said: “This is the worst statement
that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with
it for much longer!
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US,” Trump continued.
“Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” he said. “What are they thinking?”
Later on Monday, Trump said that Zelenskyy “won’t be around very
long” unless he succumbs to pressure and makes deal on the US’s terms.
“It
should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very fast,”
Trump told reporters, referring to a ceasefire. “Now, maybe somebody
doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a
deal, I think that person won’t be around very long.”
The Trump administration was reported to be drawing up a plan on
Monday to restore ties with Russia and lift sanctions on the Kremlin,
in a sharp turn in US policy that would alarm European allies and
service a broader rapprochement between Russia and the US.
The
state and treasury departments were said to be tasked with drawing up a
list of sanctions that the US could lift as part of the
administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and
economic relations, Reuters reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the Trump administration
had stopped financing new weapons sales to Ukraine and was considering
freezing weapons shipments from US stockpiles, in what would be a
devastating blow to Ukraine’s ability to continue to defend against the
Russian invasion.
Trump denied that he had discussed halting military aid to Ukraine,
saying: “I haven’t even talked about that right now. I mean, right now,
we’ll see what happens. A lot of things are happening right now,
literally as we speak.”
The flurry of activity followed a French proposal for a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine, as European efforts to bolster support for Kyiv accelerate in the face of uncertain US backing.
The
French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Monday: “Such a
truce – on air, sea and energy infrastructure – would allow us to
determine whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith” and gauge his attitude to “real peace negotiations”.
A day after European leaders rallied around Ukraine
at a summit in London, Barrot added: “Never has the risk of a war in
Europe, in the EU, been so high … The threat keeps getting closer to us,
the frontline keeps getting closer to us.”
Zelenskyy
had said that he believed a peace with Russia was far off in an
interview in which he also expressed optimism about Ukraine’s
partnership with the US, saying: “I think our relationship [with the US]
will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship.”
Those remarks followed a blow-up in the Oval Office where Trump accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with” a third world war and told the Ukrainian president to come back “when he is ready for peace”.