Trump Says He and Putin Have Agreed to Begin Talks on Ending the Russia-Ukraine War

TIME

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy says he won't accept a deal with Russia without consultation.

Transcript

00:00We had a great call and it lasted for a long time, over an hour this morning.

00:07I also had with President Zelensky a very good call after that.

00:12And I think we're on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace and

00:18President Zelensky wants peace and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed.

00:23I'll be dealing with President Putin largely on

00:26the phone and we ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he'll come here and I'll

00:33go there and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia. The first time we'll meet in

00:37Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something done. But we want to end that war. That war is a

00:42disaster. It's a really bloody, horrible war.

00:46Do you oppose NATO membership for Ukraine?

00:49I don't think it's practical to have it personally. I know that

00:53a new Secretary of Defense who's excellent, Pete, made a statement today saying that he

01:00thinks it's unlikely or impractical. I think probably that's true. I think

01:04long before President Putin, they said there's no way they'd allow that.

01:08This has been going on for many, many years. They've been saying that for a long time,

01:13that Ukraine cannot go into NATO. And I'm okay with that. I just want the war,

01:20whether they are or they're not. But it certainly would seem to be that most people have said that

01:24that is something that's not going to happen. Why are you freezing out President Zelensky

01:29of this process a bit? Isn't there a danger of that?

01:31No, I don't think so, as long as he's there. But at some point, you're going to have to have

01:35elections too. You're going to have to have an election.

01:38If the war were to end, he says he wants guarantees of security.

01:42We'll see what that means. I think when the war ends, one thing he was very strong about,

01:48if it ends, he wants it to end. And that's President Putin said that he wants it to end.

01:53He doesn't want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later.

01:57We talked about the possibility, I mentioned it, of a ceasefire so we can stop the killing.

02:02And I think we'll probably end up at some point getting a ceasefire in the not too distant future.

02:06Do you view Ukraine as an equal member of this peace process?

02:10It's an interesting question. I think they have to make peace.

02:17Their people are being killed and I think they have to make peace.

02:21I said that was not a good war to go into. And I think they have to make peace. That's what I think.

02:39I think it's fair to talk to the Russians. And for us it's also very important,

02:46even though it doesn't sound like it today, but we know the situation of the Europeans.

02:51And they know my position. I think that the Europeans should be at the table of negotiations

02:57because we are a part of Europe and we will definitely be a member of the European Union.

03:02It's important for us. They helped us a lot.

03:05The main thing today is that everything goes according to Putin's plan.

03:12When he wants to do everything so that his negotiations are bilateral,

03:17he is from the United States of America, and we simply will not be able to accept

03:23any negotiations without us as an independent country.

03:27And I articulate this very clearly to our partners.

03:32Any bilateral negotiations on Ukraine, I'm not talking about other topics,

03:38they are free here, any bilateral negotiations on Ukraine without us, we will not accept.

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