(AFP) – US President Donald Trump said he exchanged “pretty strong words” Wednesday with the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany on Ukraine, in the latest sign of a growing rift on how to end Russia’s invasion. Trump added that the Europeans wanted to hold fresh talks this weekend but warned that they risked “wasting time” amid divisions over a US plan to bring the war to an end.
“We discussed Ukraine in pretty strong words,” Trump told reporters when asked about the phone call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “I think we had some little disputes about people, and we’re going to see how it turns out. And we said, before we go to a meeting, we want to know some things,” Trump added.
“They would like us to go to a meeting over the weekend in Europe, and we’ll make a determination depending on what they come back with. We don’t want to be wasting time.” Trump has been pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a US plan and accused Zelensky of not reading the plan. But Ukrainian officials told AFP on Wednesday that Kyiv had sent an updated draft of the plan to Washington.
An initial US plan that involved Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not captured was seen by Kyiv and its European allies as aligning too closely with many of Russia’s hardline demands and has since been revised. Talks between US officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin last week also failed to reach a breakthrough.
Trump’s comments come amid a growing rift with Europe after he described it as “decaying” and “weak” on immigration and Ukraine, days after a new US national security strategy said the continent risked “civilizational erasure.”
The US leader, meanwhile, gave the latest in a series of hints that he may walk away from a conflict he blames on his predecessor Joe Biden, and which he once said he could end within 24 hours of returning to office in January. “Sometimes you have to let people fight it out and sometimes you don’t,” Trump said on Wednesday. “But the problem with letting people fight it out is yet you’re losing thousands of people a week. It’s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous.”
© 2024 AFP
