President Trump said the world will know in about two weeks whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has had enough of the war with Ukraine.
“I can’t tell you that,” Mr. Trump said when asked in the Oval Office Wednesday whether he thinks Mr. Putin wants to end the war. “I’ll let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks.”
“We’re going to find out very soon,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to find out if he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is we’ll respond a little bit differently, but it’ll take about a week and a half, two weeks.”
He said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is doing a phenomenal job in handling the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
“They seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed, I can’t tell you, nobody can,” Mr. Trump said. “I can say this — I’m very disappointed at what happened, a couple of nights now, in the middle of what you would call a negotiation. I’m very disappointed by that.”
Russia attacked Ukraine over the weekend with drones and missiles that targeted over 30 towns.
In a social media post Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that what the Russian president “doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD.”
“He’s playing with fire!” he added.
In a Sunday post after Russia’s attack, Mr. Trump issued one of his harshest critiques of Mr. Putin, saying he’s gone “absolutely CRAZY.”
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” he wrote.
“He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever,” the president wrote. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
Ukraine’s allies, including the U.S., have lifted restrictions on a range of missiles fired by Kyiv.
“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine. Neither from the British, nor from the French, nor from us. Nor by the Americans,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at an event held by the German public broadcaster WDR.
“That means Ukraine can also defend itself by, for example, attacking military positions in Russia,” Mr. Merz said.
The Kremlin was quick to decry the decision, calling it “rather dangerous,” the Russian news agency TASS reported.
Mr. Trump said he will sit down with Mr. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy if it’s necessary during their next peace talks.
“At this point, we’re working on President Putin and we’ll see where we are. I think we’re doing fine, but we’ll see,” he said. “I don’t like what’s happening.”
The president said he won’t be putting sanctions on Russia, because he thinks they’re close to striking a deal.
“I don’t want to screw it up by doing that. Let me tell you, I’m a lot tougher than the people you’re talking about, but you have to know when to use that if I think it’s going to hurt a deal,” he said.
