Trump: Putin ‘destroying Russia’ by refusing deal with Ukraine

During his first day in office as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed several executive orders. He answered questions from reporters, including those about the Russian-Ukrainian war. US President Donald Trump said that the Ukrainian president is ready for a deal and pointed to economic difficulties in Russia that could push Putin to negotiate.

Voice of America reports this.

Responding to media questions about the Russian war in Ukraine, the White House chief said that "Zelensky wants to make a deal."

He also expressed the hope that Putin would be ready for a deal because "he is destroying Russia by not making a deal."

"I think Russia is kinda in big trouble. You take a look at their economy; you take a look at their inflation in Russia. I got along with [Putin] great; I would hope he wants to make a deal," the US president added.

Commenting on the possibility of sanctions against Russia, Trump said he prefers tariffs over sanctions.

The head of the White House announced plans to meet with the Russian president but did not disclose details about the timing, only noting that it could happen "quite quickly."

In addition, Trump stressed that he would try to end the war as soon as possible and repeated his thesis that the conflict would not have started if he were president in 2022.

"It would not have started if I were president," Trump emphasized in his pre-election thesis.

The US president drew attention to the uneven distribution of the financial burden among NATO member states. He emphasized that the US provides more assistance to Ukraine than other allies and called on NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

"NATO should pay more. NATO should pay 5%," Trump said.

New US diplomat Marco Rubio, the first of Trump's nominees to receive Senate confirmation of his candidacy, also answered questions from reporters on January 20.

Rubio called Russia an "aggressor" and at the same time stated that the new administration "wants the war to end."

"Russia is the aggressor in this conflict, but this war must be ended. And, at the end of the day, that's the complexity of foreign policy," Rubio said, speaking to reporters on Monday immediately after his unanimous confirmation by the US Senate.

The new secretary of state said he could not set a time frame for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine and added that he expects both sides to make some concessions to achieve peace.

"We want the war to end. That's pretty clear," Rubio said.

For reference:

It should be noted that US President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement in the first hours of his new presidential term. The head of the White House also announced the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), which could negatively affect the global health system and complicate the fight against future pandemics.`