President Donald Trump said Saturday that the ‘hatred’ between Russia and Ukraine is getting in the way of reaching a peace deal in that conflict, where the death toll is getting worse.
Trump, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Fla., told world leaders assembled there that, ‘The hatred between Putin and his counterpart is so great.’
‘It’s so great that, you know, Ukraine, Russia, you’d think there would be a little bit of camaraderie, [but] there’s not. And the hatred is so great. It’s very hard for them to get there. It’s very, very hard to get there. So we’ll see what happens,’ Trump said. ‘But we’ve been close a lot of times and one or the other would back out.’
‘But we’re losing, you know, they’re losing, you know, doesn’t really affect us very much because we’ve got an ocean separating. I’m doing it as a favor to Europe, and I’m doing it as a favor to life because they’re losing 25,000 souls,’ Trump added. ‘Think of that every month. 25,000. Last month, 31,000. Both sides, 31,000 people died, mostly soldiers.’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News in late February that Russia is trying ‘to play with the president of the United States’ and stalling U.S.-brokered efforts to end the war.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to freeze the conflict along its current lines, proposing a ceasefire followed by negotiations. But he said he would not accept a Russian demand for Ukraine to surrender territory the Russian army has not been able to capture in four years of fighting.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in January that Russia is losing between 20,000 and 25,000 troops each month in its war against Ukraine as fighting drags on into a fourth year.
Rutte told the Renew Europe Global Europe Forum in Brussels at the time that the staggering number of casualties reflects the intensity of Ukraine’s defense but warned that Russia remains NATO’s most significant long-term threat.
Fox News’ Simon Owen, Greg Palkot and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.