Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked about efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War.
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00:00First of all, our thanks to the members of law enforcement who are here and our condolences to the families. We're very sorry for your loss.
00:07Mr. President, on Ukraine and on your call today that you have with President Putin, you said last week that you thought nothing was going to happen, no advances would be made until you and Putin got together. Do you still feel that way?
00:17I think something's going to happen. It's a very big egos involved. I tell you, big egos involved. But I think something's going to happen. And if it doesn't, I just back away and they're going to have to keep going again.
00:32And this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation, should have remained. But we have, because the past administration felt very strongly that we should be involved and we would get involved much more than Europe did in terms of the money and all of the things that we gave.
00:51We gave massive amounts. I think record-setting amounts given to a foreign. There's never been anything like this, both weaponry and money. And Europe gave a lot also, but they didn't give anywhere near what we gave.
01:03We gave probably almost three times the amount. And it's just a shame. The whole thing is a shame. The level of death is just a shame. Yeah.
01:14Did you ask President Putin to meet with you?
01:17About what?
01:18About Ukraine.
01:18Of course I did. I talked to him about it. I said, when are we going to end this, Vladimir? I've known for a long time now.
01:25I said, when are we going to end this bloodshed, this bloodbath? It's a bloodbath. And I do believe he wants to end it.
01:33You know, when I made the call, I told the people last night, I spoke to the heads of the different countries, Germany and Finland.
01:40We had Italy, as you know, and the UK was on the line today and a couple of others.
01:48And then they were, in turn, calling everyone. Ursula was there from the European Union. She was terrific.
01:56And we, you know, we spoke for a long time about it. And they got a problem. It's a big, big problem. It's a terrible war. It's very hard to extradite themselves away from what's taking place over there.
02:14The amount of, the amount of anger, the amount of hate and the amount of death. It's very hard. Very tough situation. But I said to him, we've got to get going.
02:22And I did say also, if I thought that you couldn't do it, I'd step away because what are you going to do? We don't have boots on the ground. We wouldn't have boots on the ground.
02:32But we do have a big stake. And the financial amount that was put up is just crazy. It's crazy. This isn't, this isn't for us. This is for somebody else.
02:44The amount of money that we put up is record setting. It's never been anything like this. And that includes weapons. Never been anything like this. Young, please.