By Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Vladimir Putin was going to “be good” and move forward toward ending the war in Ukraine, but conceded it was possible the Russian president doesn’t want to make a deal.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they’re all tired of it, but you never know,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox News “Fox & Friends” program.
Trump spoke the day after hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders at the White House for talks on his peace efforts, a meeting that followed his summit with Putin in Alaska last Friday.
“We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks … It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
“I hope President Putin is going to be good, and if he’s not, it’s going to be a rough situation. And I hope that … President Zelenskiy will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also,” he said.
Trump has faced sharp criticism from Democrats and others who have warned against placing any trust in Putin.
“President Trump must abandon the delusion that Putin is going to engage in good faith to end this conflict,” U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement, calling for swift action to put real pressure on Russia.
“He must do what is necessary to end this war, not simply on Putin’s terms, but in a way that delivers a just and durable peace in Ukraine,” Meeks said.
On security guarantees for Ukraine that Kyiv and its allies are seeking as part of any peace settlement, Trump said that while Europe was willing to commit troops in some form, the United States would not, although it could provide other assistance.
“There’ll be some form of security. It can’t be NATO,” he said. “They’re willing to put people on the ground. We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you could talk about by air.”
Asked what assurances he could give that the U.S. troops would not be on the ground defending Ukraine’s border, he said: “You have my assurance. You know, I’m president.”
Trump said relations between Russia and Europe had been fractured for years, and that was part of the reason the war had gone as long as it had.
Trump also told Fox News he thought relations between Putin and Zelenskiy might be “a little bit better” or else he would not have pursued their one-on-one meeting.
Trump said he had called Putin after his talks with the European leaders to help set up a one-on-one meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy that would be followed by a trilateral meeting to include himself.
The U.S. president said he went into another room to call Putin out of respect for the Russian leader, adding that he had taken the call “very happily” despite the fact that it was 1 a.m. in Moscow.
“I didn’t do it in front of them. I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn’t do that because they have not had the warmest relations. And actually, President Putin wouldn’t talk to the people from Europe,” he said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Susan HeaveyEditing by Andrew Heavens, Frances Kerry and Alistair Bell)
