The former US leader and Republican candidate in this year’s presidential election, Donald Trump, has reiterated his plans to pressure Russia and Ukraine into working out a peace deal if he returns to the White House.
In an interview on the talk show ‘America First with Sebastian Gorka’ aired on Monday, Trump said negotiations are the only way to “stop the bloodshed in Europe.”
“We have to get both of them [Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky] together, and I’ll say ‘you gotta get this thing done, you’re gonna get it done…’ I’ll get them together and make a deal, and I’ll get it done,” Trump stated, adding that he knows both leaders well and knows exactly what to tell them to make sure that a peace deal is signed.
Trump likened the conflict to a “chess match or a poker game,” which he knows how to play. He accused current President Joe Biden of failing to stop the conflict in the first place, saying Biden is “not much of a chess player,” and that he was not right in placing all of the blame for the conflict on Putin.
“It should have never started… I did discuss Ukraine with Putin… it was the apple of his eye, he would have never done it [started the conflict] when I was [in office],” he said.
This is not the first time that Trump has called for peace talks to stop the Ukraine conflict. In May last year, he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that if he returns to power, he can end the war in one day. When asked how, Trump said that both Zelensky and Putin “have weaknesses and they both have strengths,” which he could use to settle the conflict. Zelensky responded at the time that Trump’s comments were simply part of his “political message.”
Moscow has said it is open to peace talks, but both Kiev and its Western backers have insisted that negotiations can only be conducted on Zelensky’s terms. These include the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, the return of all former Ukrainian territories, and an international tribunal for Russia’s leadership. Moscow considers these demands unrealistic.
Switzerland recently offered to host a peace summit sometime this year. However, no specific date has been set, and Zelensky has stated that Russia would not be invited to the negotiating table.