Europeans want to end the war and hope the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, would reciprocate, said Trump. “Hope President Putin will be good because if that does not happen, then the situation could be difficult,” Trump said.
He also added that the Ukrainian leader would have to “show flexibility too” for a peace deal to be finalised.Speaking on his rapport with Putin, the US leader expressed a clear intention of a peace deal being the top priority. “Relationship with Vladimir Putin only matters if it leads to result-oriented actions,” Trump said.
Pointing out that President Putin and the Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy were “getting along better than expected”, Trump disclosed his next plan of action, which was to arrange meetings between leaders of the two warring neighbours to discuss diplomatic issues.
Commenting about his track record of brokering international peace deals, Trump said, “I have solved 7 wars and I thought this would be one of the easier ones, but this has turned out to be the toughest one.”
In an earlier meeting between the US President and Ukraine’s leader, Zelenskyy stressed about security guarantees. “It is very important for us that this must not be a pause in fighting, but a real peace that can be safeguarded by the security guarantees of our partners,” said the President of Ukraine.
Separately, Ukraine has proposed a defence package worth $150 billion, including a large-scale arms deal with the United States, and a joint drone production programme. This is part of efforts to secure American security guarantees once a peace accord with Russia is reached, a report by Financial Times said.
