Donald Trump strongly reprimanded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pointing his unpopularity and the diversion of American aid, and he said he was “much more confident” in an agreement with Russia, promising a meeting with Vladimir Putin before April.
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The American president, interviewed Tuesday by the press in his residence Mar-A-Lago in Florida, criticized Mr. Zelensky for denouncing the Russian-American discussions which held on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia as talks “on Ukraine without Ukraine ”.
“I am very disappointed” of these words, replied Donald Trump, before embarking on a charge against Mr. Zelensky, which he even accused of having initiated the conflict in Ukraine.
“Today I heard” Oh we were not invited “. Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have put an end to it three years ago. You should never have started it, “he said about the war, launched by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Returning to these high -level discussions between Russian and American officials in Saudi Arabia, in which Washington and Moscow agreed to appoint negotiators on war, without the participation of Europeans or kyiv, the American president judged that they had been “very good” and he said he was “much more confident” in the possibility of an agreement to end the war.
“Russia wants to do something”
“Russia wants to do something. They want to put an end to wild barbarism, “he said. Asked about a possible meeting with Vladimir Putin before the end of the month, Donald Trump simply nodded and replied: “probably”.
By calling the Russian president on the phone last week to consider directly with him a settlement of the conflict, Donald Trump had caused a shock wave in Europe and Ukraine.
During his conference in Mar-A-Lago, he also criticized Ukraine for having diverted part of the American aid since the start of the conflict. “President Zelensky told me last week that he did not know where half of the money was given to them,” said the American president, before criticizing the absence of elections in Ukraine Since the Russian invasion.
“We have a situation where we have not had elections in Ukraine, where we have a martial law essentially and where the leader of Ukraine – I am sorry to say it – but he is 4% of opinions favorable, ”he replied to the question of whether Washington would support the fact of imposing elections on Kyïv, as Russia might want.
Asked about the idea, which emerges and divides European countries, to send European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, Donald Trump replied: “If they want to do this, it’s great. I am completely favorable there “, specifying that” we (the United States) do not have to send it there, because, you know, we are very far “.
Attack in Odessa
He also called to “rebalance” the aid provided to Ukraine between Europe and Washington. “We gave them I believe 350 billion dollars (…), that’s a lot and we have to rebalance with Europe, because Europe has given a much smaller amount than that,” said Donald Trump .
In the midst of a diplomatic effervescence, Russian attacks continued in Ukraine on Wednesday, where a “large” residential area of the port city of Odessa, in the south of the country, found itself without heating or electricity.
“Following an enemy attack, 14 schools, 13 children’s gardens and a large residential area (more than 500 dwellings) are now without electricity and without heating,” said its mayor Guennadiï Troukhanov.
The Russian army has been pounding for three years the Ukrainian energy and civil infrastructure, in addition to bombing cities and villages of Ukraine.