President Trump on Monday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the leader’s resistance to cede territory to Russia, saying he disagrees “very, very severely” with Zelensky.
“I get along with Zelensky, but, you know, I disagree with what he’s done, very, very severely disagree. This is a war that should have never happened,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Russia’s more than three-year war in Ukraine.
In an attempt to broker an end to the conflict, Trump announced Friday he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15.
Trump has said the meeting will touch on some territorial swapping for “the betterment of both” countries, a proposal Zelensky on Saturday staunchly opposed.
“Of course, we will not give Russia any awards for what it has done. The Ukrainian people deserve peace,” he said, adding that “all partners” must understand peace and that “Ukrainians will not give their land to an occupier.”
Trump said he was perturbed by the Ukrainian leader’s resistance.
“I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, ‘Well, I have to get constitutional approval.’ I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap, because there’ll be some land swapping going on,” Trump said.
He added that the land swap will be “for the good of Ukraine,” before adding that a possible deal will also involve “some bad stuff for both” Kyiv and Moscow.
“So it’s good and there’s bad, but it’s very complex, because you have lines that are very uneven, and there’ll be some swapping, there’ll be some changes in land,” he said.
The president’s comments come after his special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow last week, during which the Russian leader reportedly shared a ceasefire proposal that would entail Ukraine withdrawing its military from the Donetsk region, allowing it to be under the Kremlin’s control, along with Luhansk.
Zelensky has not been invited to the summit with Putin. Trump said Monday he hoped a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, with or without his involvement, would follow Friday’s meeting in Alaska.
“We’re going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” he said.
“Ultimately, I’m going to put the two of them in a room. I’ll be there, or I won’t be there, and I think it’ll get solved,” Trump said.
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