Trump wants Putin to stop shelling, sign deal

The U.S. president spoke with reporters at the airport in New Jersey on the way to Washington, DC, an Ukrinform staff correspondent reports.

“I think the meeting went well. We'll see what happens over the next few days. We'll probably learn a lot,” he said. The head of the White House added that it was a “good”, “nice” and “beautiful” meeting, noting that the president of Ukraine wants to do something good for his country and is working hard to this end.

The U.S. leader said Zelensky reiterated his plea for weapons, with Trump adding, “But he’s been saying that for three years, [that] he needs more weapons.”

“We’re going to see what happens,” Trump continued. “I want to see what happens with respect to Russia.”

Asked whether his attitude toward Zelensky had improved after the meeting in the Oval Office, the American leader said it was never bad and that it was simply a dispute during the previous conversation, where he disagreed with some of the positions voiced by the president of Ukraine.

Trump admitted that Volodymyr Zelensky remained in a very difficult situation, fighting a much greater force.

At the same time, he emphasized that he was "very disappointed" that Russia launched missiles after the negotiations began. Trump explained that he wanted to see how Moscow would behave further.

At the same time, Trump admitted that the peace agreement in Ukraine remains really challenging.

In addition, the head of the White House confirmed that Zelensky had brought up Crimea during their interaction, but "very briefly." Still, Trump reiterated the point he had made earlier: the issue of Crimea should be addressed to his predecessors.

"That’s 11 or 12 years ago; that’s a long time ago. I don’t know how you can bring up Crimea, because that’s been a long time. Nobody brought it up for 12 years, and now they bring it up now. Maybe go back to Obama, ask him why they gave it up," Trump said.

At the same time, the U.S. leader said he wanted Vladimir Putin of Russia to “stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal”. Trump once again assured journalists he could do a lot to put pressure on Russia, adding that there are two weeks or even less to see what happens.

As Ukrinform reported, the White House called productive the meeting, which the presidents of Ukraine and the United States held on Saturday in the Vatican.

Photo: PAP/EPA