President Trump told The New York Post on Friday that he’s spoken by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, a claim the Kremlin said it couldn’t confirm or deny.
When asked how many times he’s talked with the Russian leader, Trump said, “I’d better not say.” Trump said Putin wanted to see an end to the war and the “dying” on the battlefield.
“All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason,” the president said. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the actual death toll in Ukraine is in the millions.
The president said he hopes the war ends soon, but it’s unclear how that might happen. “I hope it’s fast. Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked by Russia’s TASS news agency if he could confirm that Trump and Putin had spoken.
“What can be said about this news: as the administration in Washington unfolds its work, many different communications arise,” Peskov said. “These communications are conducted through different channels. And of course, amid the multiplicity of these communications, I personally may not know something, be unaware of something. Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that he was willing to enter talks with Russia as long as the West provided security guarantees as part of a future deal, which Russia likely won’t accept since its main demand is for Ukrainian neutrality.
“If I had the understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and give us the security guarantees, I would be prepared for any format of negotiations,” Zelensky said.
Amid the talk about negotiations, fighting continues to rage in eastern Ukraine, and the US continues to supply weapons to fuel the war.
