Trump on Ukraine War: ‘Russia ready to end Barbarism’
Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed Russia wanted to end the “barbarianism” in its war with Ukraine as US-Russia negotiations progressed. Speaking at the White House, Trump stated, “Russia wants to stop the barbarianism. Soldiers are dying by the thousands weekly. Besides Russian and Ukrainian troops, many Koreans have died. We want to end it.”
Trump insisted the war would never have happened under his leadership. “It’s senseless. It should have never started. If I were President, it wouldn’t have,” he asserted.
US-Russia talks on Ukraine Negotiations to resolve the three-year war began Tuesday at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to appoint high-level teams to chart a path toward peace.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the talks, criticizing the US and Russia for excluding Ukraine. “We won’t accept any outcome from negotiations we are not part of,” Zelenskyy stated.
Trump blamed Ukraine for the war, suggesting they could have avoided it. “Now they say, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited.’ You’ve been in this for three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he remarked.
The Riyadh talks mark the first high-level US-Russia meeting since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Rubio noted that European nations with sanctions against Russia would eventually join the discussions.
Yuri Ushakov, Russian foreign policy aide, confirmed the appointment of negotiating teams but found it “difficult” to set a date for a Trump-Putin meeting. Trump previously stated he planned to meet Putin before the end of the month.
