WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears more eager to reach a peace agreement than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Zelensky accused Moscow of breaching a recently announced cease-fire covering energy infrastructure.
Trump said he had pressured both sides into accepting the limited truce over the weekend. He also maintained that “there have been violations on both sides,” dismissing Zelensky’s assertion that Putin endangered the agreement by ordering strikes on natural gas facilities.
“All I know is that Zelensky and Putin have to get together and end that ridiculous war,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Ohio. “This month they lost 32,000 people in that war, and it’s ridiculous. So they have to get together and get it done.”
Trump said the two countries accepted the energy cease-fire because he publicly declared that they had done so. “They agreed [to the energy cease-fire]. You know why? Because I said you agreed. That’s why,” he said. “They agreed because I said they agreed, and that thing has to get settled.”
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The president has sharply criticized Zelensky in recent days. At one point, Trump said “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” following Zelensky’s objections to a deal Trump announced Friday that would allow Russian diesel to be exported to the United States.
Zelensky had also resisted Trump’s earlier calls for Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, as the international price of diesel approached a twofold increase amid the war and the continuing conflict between the United States and Iran.
“I think they want to make a deal, but they don’t know how. But we’re going to get them to make a deal,” Trump said Monday, presenting himself as the broker who could push the two sides toward an agreement.
“[Putin] wants to make a deal, and we have to get Zelensky to want to make a deal,” Trump added. “I think actually Putin wants to make a deal more than Zelensky.”
