WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump met with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday and shortly afterward stated that Russia should be allowed to keep the Ukrainian land it has seized since dictator Vladimir Putin invaded nearly four years ago.
“It is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are,” he wrote in a social media post about 45 minutes after the Ukrainian president had left the White House. “Let both claim Victory, let History decide! No more shooting, no more Death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent. This is a War that would have never started if I were President. Thousands of people being slaughtered each and every week — NO MORE, GO HOME TO YOUR FAMILIES IN PEACE!”
He repeated that sentiment upon landing in Florida, where he is scheduled to spend the weekend at his country club in Palm Beach.
“Go by the battle line wherever it is or else it gets too complicated,” he told reporters. “Stop right now at the battle line.”
It is unclear whether this reflects yet another policy shift from Trump or, as is often the case with him, merely a random idea that popped into his head and will disappear just as quickly.
At a de facto news conference at the start of his meeting with Zelenskyy earlier Friday afternoon, he again expressed his surprise that the Ukrainian leader, whose citizens are getting slaughtered nightly by Russian drones and missiles, does not get along with Putin, the man ordering those attacks.
“There’s a lot of bad blood with the two presidents,” Trump said. “These two leaders do not like each other.”
Putin’s attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine have been condemned nearly universally, and he has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Friday’s meeting came the day after Trump spoke with Putin by phone for two hours and claimed they’d made “great progress” toward ending the nearly four-year-old war started when Putin invaded his neighbor in February 2022. On the agenda was the possible transfer of U.S. Tomahawk missiles, which have a range that would allow Ukraine to hit targets as far as 1,500 miles into Russia.
Trump, after having called Russia a “paper tiger” in recent weeks because of Putin’s inability to conquer and seize all of Ukraine quickly, seemed to equivocate on the idea Friday. “What’s going to happen if the United States is in a conflict and we need the Tomahawks? That’s the problem. We need Tomahawks,” he said.
Trump also talked up the idea of meeting again with Putin in the coming weeks in Budapest — even though the city is in Hungary, currently run by possibly the only pro-Putin leader, other than Trump, in the NATO alliance, Viktor Orbán. The city was also where Russia in 1994 promised not to invade Ukraine if it gave up the nuclear weapons it inherited upon the breakup of the Soviet Union.
For his part, Zelenskyy used the same strategy for dealing with Trump that has been successfully adopted by other U.S. allies: praising him profusely.
“Again, congratulations with your successful ceasefire in the Middle East,” Zelenskyy said, which followed up on a similar statement he posted online Thursday. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Zelenskyy again wore a blazer and tie, thereby avoiding the scolding he received at the hands of pro-Trump reporter Brian Glenn and Vice President JD Vance for sporting military fatigues rather than a suit during his February visit to the White House, his first since Trump’s return to the presidency. That meeting ended with Trump and Vance piling on Zelenskyy for not being adequately grateful, and was viewed with horror in European capitals.
In the days following Putin’s invasion in 2022, Trump praised the Russian leader as a “genius” and “savvy” for having sent in troops to kill Ukrainians and seize their land. In the months to follow, including following his return to office nine months ago, he blamed Zelenskyy for his country getting invaded and former President Joe Biden for letting it happen.
Only in recent months has he begun blaming Putin, too, for his continued drone and missile attacks against civilians, particularly following conversations with Trump.
The frequency of Russian attacks against Ukraine ramped up dramatically after Trump returned to office, according to a BBC analysis.
Despite Putin’s willingness to kill civilians, Trump still boasts of his “good relationship” with him. He cited that as the reason for inviting Putin to meet with him in Alaska in August and rolling out a red carpet for him, literally, upon his arrival.
Putin, nevertheless, went right back to his assaults on Ukrainian cities afterward, even though Trump had warned repeatedly that he expected Putin to agree to a ceasefire at the meeting.
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