In a historic summit held yesterday in Saudi Arabia that lasted for 4.5 hours, the US and Russian delegations agreed to initiate efforts to end the war as soon as possible. US President Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, of not ending the war. Trump stated, “Today I heard that they say ‘we were not invited.’ You have been there for three years, you should’ve ended this three years ago. You should not have even started. You could have reached an agreement earlier.”

Donald Trump held a press conference evaluating the developments in the Russia-Ukraine war and the ceasefire process. Expressing hope that the talks in Saudi Arabia started well and the process would go smoothly, Trump stated that hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died in the war and it needs to come to an end now. Blaming the previous Joe Biden administration in the meeting, Trump addressed the issue of why Ukraine was not invited to the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.

Trump argued that Ukraine had the opportunity to end the war earlier but chose to continue the conflict with the support of the Joe Biden administration. Trump emphasized, “Today I heard that they say ‘we were not invited.’ You have been there for three years, you should’ve ended this three years ago. You should not have even started. You could have reached an agreement earlier. I could have made such an agreement for Ukraine that I could have almost given them all their lands. But they preferred not to do it this way and President Biden has no clue how wrong he acted in this regard. It’s very bad and sad.”

Without making a clear assessment concerning Russia’s role in the cause of the war, Trump argued that both Biden and Zelensky opened the door to a war that “should never have started” due to their weak leadership.

“I AM IN FAVOR OF EUROPEAN PEACE FORCE”

Moreover, Trump expressed his interest in the possibility of European peace force soldiers being stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace plan that some European leaders supported while others remained hesitant. When asked about his view on the idea of European peace force soldiers in Ukraine, Trump responded, “If they want to do that, that’s great. I’m in favor of that. If they want to do that, that would be good.” Referring to the countries like France and the UK discussing this idea, Trump assessed that “If we make a peace deal, I don’t think it would be necessary for us to send troops there from a European perspective because we are too far away, but having soldiers there would be good. I have no objection to that.”

Especially knowing France’s willingness for this, Trump noted that such a step would be “a nice gesture.”

“UKRAINIAN CITIES RESEMBLE GAZA”

Pointing out that war laws are still applicable in Ukraine, Trump stated that no elections have been held in the country for a long time and people are not very pleased with Zelensky. Trump remarked, “It’s been a long time since elections were held. This is not about Russia. This idea comes from me and many other countries. The cities in Ukraine literally resemble Gaza. People are tired of this. They want to see something happening.” Responding to a question, Trump stressed that he does not have the idea of withdrawing US troops in Europe.