Donald Trump has suggested Russia’s war in Ukraine could have been “settled very easily” as he criticised Kyiv’s negotiation skills.
In comments after an extraordinary meeting between senior American and Russian officials on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, the US president said of Ukraine: “They’ve had a seat [at the table] for three years and a long time before that.
“This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without, I think, the loss of much land and without the loss of any lives and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their side.”
While touting his own negotiation skills, Mr Trump also said he was “more confident” about a peace deal after Tuesday’s talks, attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
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While speaking from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Mr Trump also said he would not oppose seeing European peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
He also repeated a proposal that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold elections in Ukraine as a condition of peace.
‘Not a Russian thing’
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down to 4% approval rating.”
He added: “If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people have to say – it has been a long time since they had an election?
“That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also.”
Mr Trump also told reporters he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had discussed Ukraine before the full-scale invasion in 2022.
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“President Putin and I would talk about Ukraine, and it was the apple of his eye, I will tell you that,” he said.
“But he never, there was never a chance of him going in. And I told him: ‘You better not go in, don’t go in, don’t go in.’ And he understood that and he understood it fully.”
US correspondent
In another place, at another time, it would have been: “You’re fired.”
Donald Trump coined it differently when he was asked about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the sentiment was the same.
Asked about suggestions that Russia wanted elections in Ukraine as part of a peace deal, the US president replied: “I hate to say it, but he’s down to a 4% approval… when they want a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine say it’s been a long time since we had an election? That’s not a Russia thing, that’s coming from me and other countries.”
From one president to another, it was goodbye. A farewell to the notion that Trump respects Zelenskyy as an equal player in peace negotiations.
Read James Matthews’s full analysis here
US and Russia ‘need vibrant diplomatic missions’
Mr Trump added he will probably meet with Mr Putin before the end of the month.
At Tuesday morning’s talks, US and Russian officials agreed to restore embassy staffing and establish a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine in another sign of the significant American change in diplomatic relations with Moscow.
Mr Rubio said the two countries “need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally”. The US and Russia also agreed to explore closer relations and economic cooperation at the meeting.
“Should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly, economically, on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term,” Mr Rubio said.
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He added ending Russia’s war in Ukraine would require concessions from all sides.
The comments came as talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia ended – part of a remarkable US policy reversal after years of former president Joe Biden leading international efforts to isolate Moscow.
‘Very useful’ talks, Lavrov says
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said “the conversation was very useful”.
“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” Mr Lavrov said.
“And I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position, which we have once again outlined in detail, using specific examples, based on President Putin’s repeated speeches.”
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said even though Ukraine was not at the table on Tuesday, any actual peace negotiations will include the country.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country will not accept any outcome from this week’s talks if Kyiv does not take part. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting.
Ukraine losing ground to Russia
The talks came as Ukraine is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago.
The Ukrainian air force said Russian troops launched a barrage of 176 drones at Ukraine on Monday night, most of which were destroyed or disabled by jamming.
One Russian drone struck a residential building in Dolynska in the Kirovohrad region, wounding a mother and her two children and prompting an evacuation of 38 apartments, the regional administration reported.
Four more residential buildings were damaged by drone debris in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine, according to local officials.
European allies left scrambling
Ties between Russia and the US had fallen to their lowest level in decades in recent years – a rift that had been widening since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and worsened after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
At that point, the US, along with European nations, imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia and the allies have repeatedly expanded the measures to damage the Russian economy.
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But the recent US diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Mr Zelenskyy and key European allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that will not be favourable to Ukraine.
On Monday, France called an emergency meeting of European nations, including the UK, to discuss the war.
Saudi Arabia seeks to be diplomatic player
The meeting between the US and Russia on Tuesday at the Diriyah Palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh also highlights de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to be a major diplomatic player, burnishing a reputation severely tarnished by the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi state media described the talks as happening at the prince’s direction. Saudi Arabia has also helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Mr Zelenskyy for an Arab League summit in 2023.
Mr Zelenskyy had been due to travel to Saudi Arabia this week but rescheduled it to 10 March, suggesting he wanted to avoid his visit being linked to the US-Russia talks since Ukrainian officials were not invited.
