Kiev has "no cards" in negotiations with Russia, Putin can take all of Ukraine if he wants

US President Donald Trump said on February 21 that Ukrainian leaders "have no cards" in negotiations to end the military conflict with Russia.

US President Donald Trump said he had very good talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: NYT)

Speaking at a meeting of US governors at the White House, Mr. Trump said: "I had very good negotiations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and I did not have such good negotiations with Ukraine. They have no cards, but they are being tough. However, we will not let this situation continue."

In an interview with Fox News on the same day, Mr. Trump said: "I don't think it's important that he (Zelensky) is in the meetings. He makes it very difficult to reach an agreement... He complained that he wasn't in the meeting that we're having with Saudi Arabia, which is trying to broker peace. He's been in meetings for the past three years and hasn't gotten anything done."

The US President continued to talk about his Ukrainian counterpart: "He makes it very difficult to make a deal. Look what happened to Ukraine, it was destroyed."

Mr Trump said the Russian president could take all of Ukraine if he wanted to and that was why Mr Zelensky should work towards a deal with Russia.

Speaking about President Putin, Mr. Trump said, "He wants to make a deal. And he doesn't have to make a deal because if he wanted to, Mr. Putin could take all of Ukraine."

The US leader also criticized his predecessor Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky, accusing them of not doing enough to reach a compromise that could stop Russia's military campaign in Ukraine in 2022.

"Putin could easily be persuaded to give it up, but they don't know how to talk," Trump said, adding that he was not trying to make the Russian president look nice or better, but that the conflict should not have happened.

President Donald Trump also expressed disappointment with Ukrainian leader Zelensky's rejection of a rare earth minerals deal with the United States.

Regarding the recent US-Russia talks in Riyadh on February 18, US Deputy Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed during their meeting to "lay the foundation for future cooperation on geopolitical issues of mutual concern". At the same time, the US and Russia are planning to normalize relations and send ambassadors to each other's capitals as soon as possible.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tong-thong-my-trump-kiev-khong-co-la-bai-noo-trong-dam-phan-voi-nga-ong-putin-co-the-lay-toan-bo-ukraine-nu-muon-305202.html