(The Hill) — President Trump expressed skepticism about the likelihood of a meeting aimed at resolving the conflict in Eastern Europe between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, implying that the conflict might need to continue for a while longer.
During an interview with The Daily Caller, Trump showed optimism about the possibility of a three-way discussion involving himself, Putin, and Zelensky, but was less certain about a direct meeting solely between the two Eastern European leaders.
“A [trilateral] would happen. A [bilateral], I’m not sure about, but a tri will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready for it,” Trump stated to the Caller’s White House correspondent Reagan Reese in an interview released on Saturday.
“I say… I use the analogy. I’ve used it several times. You have a child, and there’s another child in the playground, and they dislike each other, and they start fighting and fighting, and you want them to stop, but they don’t,” he elaborated. “Eventually, they get tired and are willing to stop. Do you get that? Sometimes, conflict must play out a bit before resolution is achievable.”
The president added, “But this has been going on for a long time. A lot of people are dead.”
In his efforts to conclude the ongoing three-and-a-half-year conflict, Trump has advocated for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin. The Ukrainian leader, having also met with Trump earlier this month, has indicated his openness to sit down with the Russian leader, though Russian authorities have declined the meeting so far.
Currently, Russia seems to be delaying the administration’s attempts at negotiating a peace settlement to conclude the combat. Ukraine has ruled out making substantial territorial sacrifices to end the conflict, while U.S. and European officials persist in discussions about potential security measures to deter future invasions.
Trump, again, ruled out having U.S. troops on the ground as part of a security guarantee, but signaled openness to offering U.S. air support to help halt the war, something he floated earlier this month.
“Maybe we’ll do something. Look, I’d like to see something get solved. They’re not our soldiers, but there are, five to 7,000, mostly young people being killed every single week,” the president told Reese in the interview. “If I could stop that and have a plane flying around the air every once in a while, it’s going to be mostly the Europeans, but we, we’d help them.”
“They, you know, they sort of need it, and we’d help them if we could get something done,” he added.
After meeting with Putin in Alaska earlier this month, a U.S. official touted a major concession from Russia, allowing “NATO-like” security guarantees for Ukraine as a part of a peace deal. The commitment does not seem it be in place as Russia is asking for an effective veto over what those security guarantees would look like.
One of the Kremlin’s red lines is European peacekeeping forces being involved with Russian officials, suggesting China as one of the security guarantors.
While the peace talks appear to be at a stalemate, the conflict has continued with Russia launching massive aerial attacks on Ukraine. On Thursday, Moscow hit Kyiv with a large missile and drone assault that killed 23 people and injured dozens of others.
Hours after, the Trump administration approved a sale of 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles and 3,350 GPS units to Ukraine, part of a $825 million munitions deal to bolster Kyiv’s defensive capabilities.
