BBC:
Donald Trump has taken aim at Ukraine after its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was a “surprise” that his country was not invited to peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the Ukraine war.
Trump said he was “disappointed” by Ukraine’s reaction and appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war – saying the country “could have made a deal”.
The war in Ukraine was sparked by a full-scale Russian invasion almost three years ago.
His comments came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country won’t accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia.
Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was asked by the BBC what his message was to Ukrainians who might feel betrayed.
“I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat, well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily,” he said.
“You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he later added.
“I could have made a deal for Ukraine,” he said.
“That would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land – and no people would have killed, and no city would have been demolished.”
After the meeting between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, Trump said he was “much more confident”.
“They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.”
“I think I have the power to end this war,” he said.
Asked about the prospect of European countries sending troops to Ukraine, he said: “If they want to do that, that’s great I’m all for it.”
The meeting in Riyadh was the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russian and American delegations are known to have met face-to-face.
At the talks were US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, as well as Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov and the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev.
Afterwards, Lavrov said that Moscow will not accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal.
“Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable,” he said.
He said the US and Russia would appoint ambassadors to each other’s countries as soon as possible and create conditions to “restore co-operation in full”.
“It was a very useful conversation. We listened to each other, and we heard each other,” he said.
He reiterated Russia’s previous position that any expansion of the Nato defence alliance – and Ukraine joining it – would be a “direct threat” to Russia.
Rubio meanwhile said he was “convinced” Russia was “willing to begin to engage in a serious process” to end the conflict.
“There has to be concessions made by all sides. We’re not going to predetermine what those are.”
“Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one”, he added.
