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Trump Says Putin ‘Destroying’ Russia By Failing To Seek Ukraine Peace Deal
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is “destroying” Russia by refusing to make a deal to end the Ukraine war, adding that he could speak to Putin soon, without stating a timeframe.
“He should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal,” Trump told reporters on January 20 upon his arrival at the White House following his inauguration.
“I think Russia’s going to be in big trouble.”
“Most people thought that war would have been over in one week,” Trump said in what appears to be his most critical public remarks about Putin’s war.
“I think he’d be very well off to end that war.”
Russia has burned through hundreds of billions of dollars on the war, suffered an estimated 700,000 casualties, and frightened its neighbors, while also sacrificing the lucrative European gas market and access to Western financial markets as the ruble has tumbled in value.
The Kremlin is spending about 40 percent of its budget on the military and struggling to contain inflation even with interest rates above 20 percent. In return, it has seized territory in Ukraine that lays in waste.
Trump said he would at some point speak with Putin — for whom he has often expressed admiration — without specifying a time. Western leaders with the exception of right-wing figures like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump ally, have shunned meetings and –in most cases — calls with Putin in an attempt to isolate him politically.
“I got along with [Putin] great. I would hope he wants to make a deal,” Trump said about a possible meeting.
The U.S. president also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had told him he wanted a peace agreement to end the war.
During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours after taking office. He has backed off those comments in recent weeks but still has pledged to end the war quickly.
Many analysts say it will be difficult to end the war in the near term because Putin believes he is winning and has no incentive to stop the fighting, even as Russia suffers devastating losses in men and equipment.
“When the Trump team starts engaging in these kinds of discussions, they will find that getting Putin to abandon his goal of subjugating all of Ukraine will be the hardest thing in this process,” Mikhail Alexseev, a political science professor at San Diego State University who focuses on Russia and Ukraine, told RFE/RL on January 15
Alexseev said Trump will need to continue aid to Ukraine if he is serious about getting Putin to end the fighting.
Russian is gaining territory in eastern Ukraine at the fastest clip since the start of the war amid Ukraine’s manpower shortage.
Supporters of Ukraine have expressed concerns that Trump, who has criticized the amount of aid provided by the Biden administration, could pressure Kyiv to make concessions that it has so far rejected, such as surrendering territory currently occupied by Russian forces.
However, some experts doubt that Trump will abandon Ukraine, saying a Russian victory could hurt his image as much as the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul in August 2021 damaged the Biden administration’s reputation.
Prior to its full-scale invasion of February 2022, Russia initially invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine, capturing and eventually claiming large portions of eastern Ukraine.
Alexseev said Trump may seek to change Putin’s calculus on Ukraine by countering the Kremlin’s interests in other regions like the Arctic, Middle East, and Africa or targeting his allies like Iran and North Korea.
“What we may see from Trump is a broadening of the bargaining game, taking it to other areas to send more and more messages to Putin,” he said.
Trump’s latest remarks came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned that the war will not end “tomorrow or the day after” and that it was crucial to leave Kyiv in a position of strength ahead of any potential peace talks.
“Let us not delude ourselves,” Macron said in an address to the French military in northwestern France. “This conflict will not be resolved tomorrow or the day after.”
