Donald Trump has issued a fiery eight-word message to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin after the future of the Ukraine peace talks was thrown into doubt. The US president said he does not understand the Kremlin’s motives in the ongoing talks, the most recent of which involved US and Russian delegations.
Mr Trump was asked by reporters how he thought future meetings might play out. He responded: “I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing.” This is despite the Republican previously describing the US-Russia summit as “reasonably good”, adding that he believes Putin “would like to end the war”.
He added: “I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We’re going to find out. It’s a war that should have never been started.
“What comes out of that meeting? I can’t tell you, because it does take two to tango.
“He would like to end the war. That was their impression. Now, whether or not you know that was their impression, you know their impression was that they’d like to see he would like to see the war ended.”
The US delegation included envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Senator Marco Rubio said there had been “some progress”, but “we’re still not there”.
On the Russian side, Putin’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said “no compromise” had been reached during the five-hour meeting, with territorial concessions remaining the top issue.
He said Russia has a “critical and even negative attitude towards some of the proposals” brought forward by the US.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia was open to further talks, calling it “a normal working process towards finding a compromise”.
He added: “Something was accepted, while something was marked as unacceptable.”