President Donald Trump on Sunday shared among the contents of his dialog with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome.
“I think the meeting went well. We’ll see what happens over the next few days, we’ll probably learn a lot,” Trump informed reporters.
The 2 males spoke one-on-one on Saturday inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the primary time since their tense Oval Workplace alternate in late February, throughout which Trump accused the wartime chief of “gambling with World War III.”
Requested if he believes their relationship has improved since that historic conflict, Trump replied: “I think so.”
“We had a little dispute because I disagreed with something he said, and the cameras were rolling, and that was OK with me,” Trump mentioned.
Zelenskyy now seems “calmer,” based on Trump.
“I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal,” he mentioned.
Workplace of the President of Ukraine by way of Getty Pictures
Trump mentioned one of many issues Zelenskyy requested him for throughout the chat was further arms.
“He told me that he needs more weapons, but he’s been saying that for three years,” Trump mentioned. “I want to see what happens with respect to Russia.”
Since his assembly with Zelenskyy, the president appears to have adopted a harsher tone in opposition to Russia.
Trump mentioned he was “surprised and disappointed” that Moscow launched main assaults on Ukraine amid talks with the U.S., together with its greatest assault on Kyiv since final summer time, including that he nonetheless plans to speak to Putin once more.
“Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” he mentioned of Putin. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and just go back to life.”
Earlier this weekend, Trump mentioned Russia’s assaults on Ukraine maybe confirmed that Putin might not really be critical about being able to make peace.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’” Trump warned in a put up on his Fact Social platform.
Nonetheless, Trump claimed that Ukraine has already agreed to supply Russia a serious concession by ceding management of Crimea, despite the fact that Zelenskyy publicly mentioned final week he has no plans to surrender the peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday reiterated that the U.S. desires to see a deal occur sooner reasonably than later.
“This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally, if not more, important in some cases, but we want to see it happen,” he informed NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic, of course, as well. We’re close, but we’re not close enough” on a deal, Rubio added.
