President Donald J. Trump called on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, a bloody conflict that was allowed to erupt due to a lack of U.S. leadership during the previous administration.
Trump called for peace during a sit-down with Fox News host Sean Hannity in the Oval Office, his first interview since being inaugurated earlier this week, and he discussed the staggering numbers of dead bodies on both sides since Russia invaded the neighboring country three years ago.
“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,” the president told Hannity in the interview that aired on Thursday.
(Video: Fox News)
Trump blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for “allowing” the war to start in the first place, also arguing that the disgraced Democrat’s energy policies have enriched the Russian president.
“Putin shouldn’t have done it, too. I mean, I’m not blaming only that — Putin shouldn’t have done it. He shouldn’t have done it, and it has to stop,” he said.
Trump also called for Putin to make peace in a strongly worded post to Truth Social on Wednesday.
“I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. 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. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” Trump wrote.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told him that he’s ready to negotiate an end to the carnage.
“He’s had enough,” he 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.”
“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 added. “I could have made that deal so easily, and Zelenskyy decided that ‘I want a fight.'”
“You know, they have 30,000 army tanks, Russia has 30,000 army tanks. Zelenskyy had none practically,” he continued. “Then we started pouring equipment, pouring, pouring, pouring, and they had the bravery to use the equipment but in the end, there’s a war that has to be settled.”
So the field is interesting because it’s very flat. It’s great farmland, okay. It’s very flat. There’s no protection. The only thing that’s stopping a bullet that gets shot, they can go for miles, is a human body, and they’re being hit left and right, and they’re losing millions of people, young, beautiful people are dying on the battlefield, and it’s got to stop,” Trump said.
Hannity noted, “Zelenskyy did say for the first time that he would be open to a negotiated settlement.”
“He says that,” Trump replied. “He should have said that a long time ago.”
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