Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the end of the w@r in Ukraine, the New York Post reports. If true, it would be the first known direct conversation between Putin and a U.S. president since early 2022.
While repeatedly promising that he would end the w@r, he hasn’t uttered anything about specific moves publicly yet. Recently hailing it as “a bloodbath”, he spoke about some “very good talks” held by his team.
In an interview on Air Force One on Friday, Trump was asked how many times he had spoken to Putin but replied, “I better not say.” He said Putin “wants to see people stop dying”.
The White House would not comment on Trump’s remarks. Asked to respond, a Kremlin spokesman said: “Many different communications are emerging”, according to Dmitry Peskov who would not confirm or deny the claim.
In 2022, Russia invaded its neighbor in what it termed a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers and forestall what it said was a threat from NATO. Ukraine, meanwhile, supported by its Western allies led by the United States, has labeled the invasion a campaign of conquest that aimed at denying Ukrainian people independent statehood, vowing to block Russia’s advances.
He said he will ‘work out a deal’ to end the w@r and even fancies a meeting with Putin. However, what such a meeting would constitute has never been shared. President Biden further told journalists that there is an expected meeting with President Zelensky of Ukraine to discuss next options on what’s possible.
“I’ve always had a good relationship with Putin,” Trump told the New York Post, insisting that he has a tangible plan to end the w@r, though he did not provide specifics.
“I hope it’s fast,” he added. “Every day, people are dying. This w@r is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.”
Since he announced, in turn, the conditions to cease hostilities just now in June 2023, Ukraine would need to turn down further integration with NATO and pull out all forces from the four Russian-occupied regions.
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