U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with his call on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and expressed doubt over Moscow’s desire to end the war in Ukraine.
“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there. I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,” Trump told reporters after a rally in Iowa. “I’m just saying, I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”
Trump, who is trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, described the conflict as “Biden’s war” and said he was “stuck in the middle of it”.
He is pushing for a swift end to the war, citing the vast loss of life and cost to American taxpayers of aiding Ukraine’s defense, but finds the process frustrating and difficult.
Trump-Zelensky Call Due
The American leader is due to speak early on Friday morning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after the U.S. scrapped a planned shipment of weapons to Ukraine over concerns that domestic stockpiles were too low, a blow to Kyiv.
Ukraine is under pressure from Russian advances in the east, and its cities are pounded daily by Russian missiles and drones. Zelensky decried more “massive and cynical” Russian strikes that came after the Trump-Putin call.
Russia has also amassed 50,000 troops near the border with Sumy ahead of what observers fear will be a major offensive.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Russia Calls Trump-Putin Call ‘Frank’
In the Kremlin’s readout of the Trump call, it said Putin told the U.S. president that “Russia will achieve its goals” and that “Russia will not retreat from these goals,” adding that the conversation was “frank, business-like and concrete”.
The primary “root cause” of the conflict from Russia’s perspective is Ukraine’s shift westward and desire to join NATO and the European Union (EU), which Moscow sees as an intolerable security threat that it had to act militarily to stop.
Russia also cites policies that restrict Russian culture in Ukraine, and says it has intervened to protect ethnic Russians in the country’s east.
Kyiv accuses Russia of an imperial war of aggression against a sovereign country that should be free to make its own decisions, and that it seeks to eliminate Ukraine by folding it under Moscow’s control.
Zelensky said on Friday, July 4, that Russia’s strikes are “clear evidence that without truly large-scale pressure, Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behavior.”
“For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure,” Zelensky said.
“This is the only thing that can be achieved quickly to change the situation for the better. And it depends on our partners, primarily the United States.”
