Trump hopes to reach agreement with Russia to end war without pressure
The United States may apply pressure on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire following the Ukraine one, President Donald Trump said, but he hopes it will not be necessary.
Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin that, of course, they could put pressure on Russia. He stated that, in a financial sense, they could do very bad things to Russia that would be devastating for the country. However, he explained that he did not want to do that because he wanted to see peace. According to the U.S. president, it makes sense for Russia to agree, as continuing the war has a lot of downsides for it.
Trump once again recalled that under his predecessors George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Russia took territory, while he is the only one under whom this did not happen. The U.S. President recalled that he also stopped Nord Stream 2 and was the first to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons.
Trump called the agreement of Ukraine to a 30-day ceasefire achieved the day before in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) as a great success as a result of Ukrainian-American negotiations.
The US president said that they were done with Ukraine, adding that, as he had always mentioned, Ukraine was perhaps the most difficult side. He pointed out what had happened a week ago, when interesting things were occurring, and noted that he had a person who didn’t seem to want peace, but now he had agreed to peace. He stated that they would see what happened next.
The US president did not comment on whether he had a meeting with Vladimir Putin scheduled, but mentioned that "people are going to Russia right now as we speak." He said that when the complete ceasefire starts operating, they would see, as it depends on Russia.
He added that they had a good relationship with both sides and expressed hope that they could get a ceasefire from Russia.
He further stated that if they achieved that, he believed it would be 80% of the way to stopping the terrible bloodbath.
At Trump's request, Vice President J.D. Vance clarified that the telephone dialogue with Russia was ongoing.
He explained that, as the president had said, they believed they are in a very good place, with the Ukrainians agreeing to a ceasefire. Now, they are working to see if they can convince the Russians to also agree to a ceasefire. Vance assured that they would definitely provide updates when they knew more.
In conclusion, Trump expressed the opinion that there is a chance to end the war that Russia had started against Ukraine.
In turn, Prime Minister Martin welcomed the agreements reached the day before in Jeddah and referenced the example of Ireland, where a ceasefire agreement was reached with the IRA in 1993. Although it was criticized at the time, Martin noted that it laid the foundation for peace.
He acknowledged that it took a few years to achieve a comprehensive peace settlement, but emphasized that, ultimately, the guns had more or less fallen silent. The Irish Prime Minister stressed that the war in Ukraine is devastating for young people and pointed out that there should be a very simple and clear narrative: anything that can be done to stop the violence is extremely positive.