An open microphone caught U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday saying that it is because of him that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to reach a deal on Ukraine.
The comment was made by Trump to French President Emmanuel Macron before the start of a meeting attended by the two leaders along with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenski and other senior European officials.
“I think he wants to settle. I think he wants to make a deal for me, you know what I mean? As crazy as it sounds,” Donald Trump whispered to Macron in the East Room of the White House before signaling the French leader to take his seat to begin the meeting.
CNN indicated that Trump later paused the multilateral meeting to speak to Putin by phone to let him know what they all discussed in Washington.
Donald Trump insisted today that Putin already assured him at their meeting last week in Alaska that Russia would “accept security guarantees for Ukraine” and today stressed that much of the burden of that contingent to be deployed on Ukrainian soil to prevent further Russian encroachment would fall on European partners.
Both Trump and Zelenski today expressed openness to the two meeting soon in a trilateral meeting with Putin to try to negotiate a peace agreement.
The U.S. president insisted in turn that it was necessary today to discuss the “exchange of territories”, a proposal launched by President Putin and which would imply that Ukraine would have to cede to Russia the sovereignty of regions such as Donetsk and Lugansk.
However, Kiev said it considers this possible exchange intolerable and technically unconstitutional according to the Ukrainian Magna Carta.
The leaders who met with Donald Trump today to show their support for Ukraine’s position are NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French and Finnish Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Alexander Stubb, UK and Italian Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to information from EFE.
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.
