Trump on Ukraine war, calls with Putin and Zelenskyy: "My aim is to put these two countries together"

Breitbart News reports it. 

“The one with President Putin was yesterday — that went very well,” Trump said. “I then spoke with President Zelenskyy today and explained what took place yesterday, and my aim is to put these two countries together. Then we work a ceasefire and ultimately we stop losing 2,000 people a week. Two thousand people a week or more are being killed in that war, and I want to stop it. I also want to stop massive payments that are necessary to be made by us. I also want Europe to pay the same as us because they weren’t able to do that under Biden.”

The White House readout of Trump’s call with Putin noted their discussion about improving U.S.-Russia relations and economic ties. “The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved,” the statement read.

Trump also addressed reports that Russia had seized U.S.-owned company Glavproduct. While unaware of the issue, he said, “I haven’t heard about this. Nobody has complained about it to me. But if I heard, I’m sure President Putin would be very generous.”

Regarding Russia’s ties to China, Trump said any split would be a “consequence” of economic engagement but not a goal. “We should be dealing with Russia. They have the largest piece of land by far, bigger than China. They have 11 time zones. You can fly through 11 time zones from one side to the other. They have very valuable earth. Now, we’re getting a deal with Ukraine on rare earth so at least we can say we got our money back and we can do something,” he noted.

Trump also criticized U.S. financial aid to Ukraine, saying, “We’re in for $350 billion. Biden gave away money like he was just a dope, which he is — a real dope. Think of it: We’re at $350 billion and Europe is at $100 billion, and that hundred is a loan. I exposed that too.”

Trump’s conversation with Putin

On March 18, U.S. President Donald Trump had a two-hour phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. They agreed that the path to peace should begin with halting attacks on energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Moscow demanded that Ukraine suspend mobilization and pause the rearmament of its Armed Forces during a potential ceasefire.

Following the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Putin had effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire.