Trump points to "tremendous hatred" between Putin, Zelenskyy as barrier to ending war

U.S. President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Politico that it’s “very hard” for Putin and Zelenskyy to reach a peace deal due to “tremendous” level of hatred between them, per Caliber.Az. 

“They really hate each other. And part of the problem is they hate each other really a lot, you know. And it’s very hard for them to try and make a deal. It’s harder than most. I settled eight wars, and this ... I would’ve said this is the ninth. I mean, I settled one ... one that was going on for 36 years. One of the reasons is the level of hatred between Putin and Zelenskyy is tremendous,” he said.

He advised his Ukrainian counterpart to face reality.

“Well, he’s going to have to pull himself together and start accepting things as they are. You know, when you lose, because he is losing,” Trump said.

When asked if Ukraine has lost the war, Trump replied: “They’ve lost territory long before I got here. They lost a whole strip of seafront, big seafront. Uh, I mean, you look at the maps. I ... I’ve been here for 10 months,”

Trump furthermore said Russia has a strong negotiating position, unlike Ukraine, in resolving the conflict. “There can be no question about it. It’s Russia. It’s a much bigger country. I think if I weren’t president, you could’ve had World War III,” the president emphasised.

Trump said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not yet reviewed the latest peace settlement proposal regarding Ukraine.

“It would be nice if he would read it. His people loved the proposal. They really liked it. His lieutenants, his top people, they liked it, but they said he hasn’t read it yet,” he added.

The U.S. president also stated that the United States is no longer sending money to Ukraine, after former American leader Joe Biden “so stupidly” gave $350 billion to the Ukrainian side.

By Khagan Isayev