U.S. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 16 that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin "wants to stop fighting" Russia's war in Ukraine, dismissing Moscow's territorial ambitions in the embattled country.
"I think he wants to stop fighting. I see that. We spoke long and hard," Trump told reporters, referring to a phone call he held with Putin on Feb. 12 in which the two leaders agreed negotiations to end the war in Ukraine would start "immediately."
"They have a big, powerful machine. You understand that," Trump added. "And they defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. You know, they’ve been fighting a long time... But I think he would like to stop fighting."
Trump's comments come as a U.S. delegation led by State Secretary Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff readies to meet its Russian counterparts on Feb. 18, Axios reported.
Concerns have been raised about Ukraine's role in the negotiations, with European officials emphasizing that Kyiv must not be sidelined. Kyiv has not received an invitation to attend the meeting in Riyadh, with President Volodymyr Zelensky telling reporters that he found out about the meetings through media reports.
"We didn't talk about it. The media printed something. I saw that someone said that there would be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I do not know what it is," Zelensky said on Feb. 15 during the Munich Security Conference.
Zelensky seemingly rebuffed Trump's opinion on Putin's motives during an interview with NBC News on Feb. 16.
"There are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania, because we believe that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will wage war against NATO," he said.
Russia is training 150,000 troops in Belarus for a large-scale operation that could happen as early as this summer, Zelensky said. The preparations could signal a plan to invade a NATO country.
European leaders, who will participate in an emergency summit in Paris on Feb. 17 over concerns that the U.S. is advancing peace talks with Russia without Europe, have shared similar concerns over Russia's territorial ambitions.
When asked by reporters whether he believes Russia seeks to seize the entire Ukrainian territory, Trump dismissed the prospects.
"I think he wants to stop. That was my question to him. Because if he’s going to go on, that would have been a big problem for us, and that would have caused me a big problem, because you just can’t let that happen."
Earlier in the day, Trump reaffirmed that Zelensky would have a say in the peace negotiations and mentioned the possibility of allowing European nations to purchase U.S.-made weapons for Ukraine.
Olena Goncharova
