Zelenskyy should prepare to make deal to end Russia-Ukraine war, says Trump

By Josh Wingrove and Akayla Gardner 

President-elect Donald Trump said Ukraine needs to reach a deal to end the Russian invasion and downplayed the value of occupied land, in the latest signal he may push for a settlement that codifies Russian territorial gains. 

“He should be prepared to make a deal, that’s all,” Trump said of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, while speaking Monday at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club. “Got to be a deal. Too many people being killed.” 

 

Trump said it would take a century to rebuild Ukrainian cities leveled by the Russian invasion and brushed aside Ukrainian hopes of recapturing seized territory. He again criticised the use of US weapons to strike targets deeper into Russian territory — a tactic done after approval by the current White House, raising the likelihood that he’ll balk at extending that authority if fighting continues.

 

“It’s nice to say they want their land back, but the cities are largely destroyed,” Trump said Monday. “You look at some of those cities, and not one building standing. So you know, when you say, “Take over the country,” take over what? Take over what? That’s a 110-year rebuild.”

 

The comments are the latest signal that Trump’s election will sharply curtail, if not end altogether, US aid for Ukraine. 

 

Trump said several times Monday that he believes Russian leader Vladimir Putin wouldn’t have invaded if he were still in office and criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for a decision to allow Ukraine to use Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, to strike back deeper into Russian territory. The missiles have a range of about 300 kilometers, or 190 miles.

 

“I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia,” he said. 

 

The Biden administration reiterated its position that it’s up to Zelenskiy to decide when and on what terms he’s willing to engage in talks. 

 

“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. We’re not going to have talks about them without them involved. We’re not going to force their hand in terms of what their next steps might be,” John Kirby, a spokesman for Biden’s National Security Council, said Monday.

 

The administration began discussing allowing use of the ATACMS before the election, and the move was in response to North Korean troops being put on the battlefield, he said.

 

Trump also briefly discussed his meeting this month in Paris with Zelenskiy. He said in response to a question from a reporter that he didn’t invite Zelenskiy to his inauguration, despite invitations to other world leaders. 

 

“If he’d like to come, I’d like to have him. I didn’t invite him, no,” Trump said.

 

Trump said the war in Ukraine is “a nasty one” and said an “astronomical” number of soldiers are being killed on both sides.  “If I were president, that war would have never happened,” he said.