Washington: US President Donald Trump said that he’ll soon speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as momentum toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine has largely stalled and left the White House frustrated.
“I’m having a conversation with him very shortly, and I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing. … I’ll be speaking to him over the next few days, and we’re going to see,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday, cited a report by CNN.
The White House later clarified that the phone call between Trump and Zelensky was scheduled for Thursday and said that there is no call with Russian President Vladimir Putin currently set.
Asked about his message for Putin, whom he’s given repeated “two-week” deadlines, Trump said he had none – but offered a subtle warning.
“I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or the other. Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it, or unhappy. And if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” he said.
Trump’s meeting with the president of Poland, a key US ally and Ukraine’s neighbour, comes as Putin is being embraced on the world stage this week, appearing in China alongside some of the world’s most powerful authoritarian leaders — a show of force, Trump acknowledged Wednesday he was watching.
And now, more than two weeks after Trump hosted Putin in Alaska, and Zelensky and other European leaders visited the White House, there’s little sign of the Zelensky-Putin talks the White House has been pushing. Trump is weighing whether he should even still be involved in trying to broker a meeting, CNN has reported. (Putin claimed Wednesday he was willing to meet with Zelensky in Moscow — a proposal Kyiv quickly called “unacceptable.”)
Trump’s frustration spilled into public view Wednesday when he was questioned about his lack of action against Russia, lashing out at a Polish reporter while hinting at possible plans to further pressure Moscow.
“How do you know there’s no action? Would you say that putting secondary sanctions on India, the largest purchaser (of oil), outside of China – they’re almost equal. Would you say there was no action? That cost hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia. You call that no action? And I haven’t done phase two yet or phase three,” Trump snapped.
But as Trump’s latest deadline for Putin comes due on Friday — after he suggested on August 22 that he would give the Russian leader “a couple of weeks” before potential consequences against Moscow — his plans now aren’t much clearer.
The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for clarity about what a second or third phase might entail.
