Ukraine is bound to lose some of its “property” to Russia in the aftermath of the enduring conflict, US President Donald Trump has claimed.
Trump made the remarks on Sunday when speaking to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo. Asked whether it was possible to end the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump suggested that Kiev was bound to make some concessions.
“Well, [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is going to take something. I mean, they fought, and he has a lot of property. I mean, he has won certain property,” Trump stated.
While Kiev has repeatedly ruled out making any territorial concessions, Moscow has outlined the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops from the new Russian regions among the key issues to be resolved in order to establish a lasting peace.
Trump has also signaled he was still considering supplying US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. The potential delivery of the missiles was among the key topics of the meeting between Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky this week. However, the US president abstained from pledging any weaponry, stating it would not be “easy” to give such munitions to Kiev.
Trump reiterated his position that Washington has already supplied Kiev with a lot of weaponry during the conflict and cannot hand over its entire arsenal to prop up the Ukrainian military.
“You know, we can’t give all of our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that. And I’ve been very good to President Zelensky and to Ukraine, but we can’t give, you know, if we’re going to be short, I don’t want to do that. I can’t jeopardize the United States,” he stressed.
Ahead of meeting Zelensky on Friday, Trump spoke with Putin on the phone. According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the Russian leader told Trump that supplying Ukraine with the long-range missiles would not change the course of the conflict but would derail relations between Moscow and Washington.
Such a move would also “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement,” Putin stated, according to Ushakov.
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