President Trump commented on the negotiations between the United States and Russia in Riyadh. He accused the leaders of Ukraine of the three-year war with Russia, stating that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "should never have started it," reports Tengrinews.kz, citing The Hill.
The publication reminds us that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "The invasion occurred nearly a decade after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014," the newspaper notes.
During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to end the war and reiterated on Tuesday that it would never have started if he had been president. He spoke after a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia without the participation of Ukrainian representatives.
"I believe I have the ability to end this war. And I think everything is going very well. But today I heard: 'Oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have resolved this in three years. You shouldn’t have started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that wouldn’t have given up almost all their land, and no one would have died, not a single city would have been destroyed, and not a single dome would have been torn down. But they chose not to do it that way," Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago after the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials.
According to Trump, Ukraine could have resolved the issue without territorial losses "even with a mediocre negotiator" several years ago.
The U.S. president, blaming Kyiv for the current situation, demanded an accounting of the funds allocated by the U.S. as aid.
"Ukraine will have to pay or find out where the money went," Donald Trump said.
Trump also stated that after the U.S. and Russia negotiations in Riyadh, he became "much more confident" in the possibility of reaching a deal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. However, he expressed disappointment over reports of Kyiv's dissatisfaction with the U.S.-Russia negotiations regarding Ukraine: "They had three years to come to the negotiating table."
The American leader believes that elections need to be held in Ukraine if it wants a seat at the negotiating table. According to him, only 4 percent of the population supports Zelensky.
Trump also mentioned that he does not oppose the deployment of European troops to Ukraine, but there will be no American soldiers there.
Furthermore, Trump criticized former President Biden, calling him "so pathetic," and then reiterated his criticism of Zelensky.
It is worth noting that Zelensky expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that "the issue of Ukraine is being decided without Ukraine," and postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia.
