President Donald Trump called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war as part of his first sit-down interview since returning to the White House, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin should never have launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity an estimated 850,000 Russian soldiers and 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the onset of the war.
“These are human beings that are just being slaughtered on this battlefield by the millions. They’ve already died, and the cities — the cities are like demolition sites,” he said in an interview that aired Thursday on “Hannity.”
An interior view shows a kindergarten, which according to Ukraine’s military officials was damaged by shelling, in Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released Feb. 17, 2022. Press Service of the Joint Forces Operation/Handout via REUTERS (Press Service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS)
The 47th president criticized former President Joe Biden for “allowing” the war to start, claiming his predecessor’s energy policies made Putin richer.
“Putin shouldn’t have done it, too. I mean, I’m not blaming only what — Putin shouldn’t have done it. He shouldn’t have done it, and it has to stop,” Trump said.
He threatened the autocratic leader in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, calling on him to make a deal or face more economic pressure.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump wrote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 19, 2023. ((Photo by ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images))
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He told reporters at the White House on Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already told him he’s ready to negotiate an end to the war.
“He’s had enough,” Trump told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either. You know, if he’s no angel, he shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen. First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity, OK? Much bigger.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, looks at a map during his visit to the Ukrainian 110th mechanised brigade in Avdiivka, the site of fierce battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Dec. 29, 2023 (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
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“Zelenskyy was fighting a much bigger entity — much bigger, much more powerful. He shouldn’t have done that because we could have made a deal and it would have been a deal that would have been — it would have been a nothing deal,” Trump said. “I could have made that deal so easily, and Zelenskyy decided that ‘I want a fight.'”
Reuters reported in November that Putin is open to discussing a peace plan. He reportedly could agree to freeze the conflict along the current lines.
Five current and former Russian officials told the outlet Moscow would not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO, nor would it allow the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil.
A public area in Kyiv has been turned into a tribute of Ukrainian flags – each representing a death from the war. (Simon Owen/Fox News)
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Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, told “America Reports” earlier this month that he’d like to see the war come to an end within 100 days of Trump taking office.
