Trump: I didn't talk about aid to Ukraine with Putin
US President Donald Trump has shared details of his conversation with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin and noted that the issue of assistance to Ukraine was not discussed.
Source: Trump in an interview on The Ingraham Angle programme on Fox News on 18 March
Details: The journalist drew Trump's attention to reports from Kremlin media outlets, which stated that Putin had demanded "immediate cessation of aid to Ukraine" as a condition for a peace agreement. However, Trump denied these claims, stating that this issue was not discussed in their conversation.
Quote: "I think we had a great call. It lasted almost two hours. Talked about a lot of things and toward getting it to peace. And we talked about other things also. […] We didn't talk about aid, we didn't talk about aid at all."
Details: Trump also emphasised the United States' interest in Russia's natural resources.
Пряма мова: "They have some valuable things for us, including very big forms of rare earth. They have a lot of earth, you know. They have a big chunk of real estate. The biggest, actually. The biggest in the world, for a country, by far. And on that, they have things that we could use, frankly, and other people could use. […] I think Russia wants to get along with the United States."
Background:
- US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation on 18 March which lasted over an hour and a half.
- The Kremlin press service reported that, following the call between Trump and Putin, the Russian side insisted that foreign military assistance and the sharing of intelligence information to Ukraine should be stopped.
- During a phone conversation, Trump and Putin agreed that peace negotiations regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war will "begin immediately in the Middle East".
- The Kremlin, in turn, stated that during his conversation with Trump, Putin had once again rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire but instead agreed to refrain from attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, "issuing the relevant order to the Russian military".
- However, Russia conducted a large-scale kamikaze drone attack on the night of 18-19 March, striking civilian infrastructure in several Ukrainian oblasts.
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