As U.S. and Russian officials met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia on ending the war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump responded to complaints from Kyiv that it was not part of the discussions.
"I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well," Trump said during a news briefing from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "But today I heard, 'oh well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down, but they chose not to do it that way."
Trump said he thought the talks with Russia in Riyadh — which marked a dramatic shift in relations between the countries since the war started on Feb. 24, 2022 — went well and that he's "much more confident" either a ceasefire or peace deal can be reached.
But Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey on Tuesday that he was frustrated his country was not part of the talks.
"Decisions on how to end the war in Ukraine cannot be made without Ukraine, nor can any conditions be imposed," Zelenskyy said, according to The Hill. "We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. It was a surprise for us, I think for many others as well."
Zelenskyy told Newsmax on Friday that Trump "has [to] make a deal, not with Putin, with us, and then pressure Putin. Because any negotiations without us, we will never accept because the war is in Ukraine, not somewhere [else]."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Saudi Arabia that any final agreement must be acceptable to Ukraine and Europe, as well as Russia, according to The Hill.
"I like him personally," Trump said of Zelenskyy. "He's fine, but I don't care about 'personally.' I care about getting the job done. You have leadership that's allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States.
"Look, we had a president [Democrat Joe Biden] who was grossly incompetent. He had no idea what he was doing. He said some very stupid things like going in for portions and all of the things. He made a lot of bad statements, but he [was] grossly incompetent, and I think everyone knew that this is something that should have never happened."
Trump had phone calls last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and with Zelenskyy and reportedly talked with Putin about a future face-to-face meeting.
"Russia wants to do something," Trump said. "They want to stop the savage barbarianism. What's going on over there, soldiers are being killed by the thousands on a weekly basis. It's ridiculous. And they're not American soldiers. They're Russian soldiers and they're Ukrainian soldiers largely, although a lot of [North] Koreans have been killed, as you know. But we want to end it. It's a senseless war. It should have never happened, would have never happened if I was president. And it's a shame to see it."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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