US President Donald Trump said French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “did nothing” to end the war in Ukraine, before their white house visits next week.
Trump also said that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, had no “cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I do not think it is very important to be in meetings.”
Since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, the United Kingdom, France and other allies have provided Kyiv weapons and other aid.
Monday, European leaders organized a crisis summit in Paris on Ukraine – one day before the American -Russian discussions in Saudi Arabia, and in the middle of the fear that Ukraine and Europe are excluded from negotiations of peace.
Despite his criticisms of Macron and Sir Keir, Trump in his interview with Fox News also praised European leaders. He said he considered Macron as a “friend” and called the British Prime Minister “very nice”.
Macron is expected to visit Washington DC on Monday, while Sir Keir will be there on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the British Prime Minister said he was “Ready and willing” to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to guarantee its security as part of a peace agreement.
The BBC contacted the PM office to comment.
While European leaders have excluded negotiations with Russia, they met regularly to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Since the invasion by Russia of Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom and the EU, as well as countries like Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia.
Many European nations have also signed agreements to support and provide help to Ukraine.
In January, Sir Keir signed a “Landmark” pact, saying to Zelensky: “We are with you not only today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after the end of this war and that ‘Ukraine is free and prosperous once again. “
Trump’s Ukrainian envoy Keith Kellogg said he had “extended and positive” discussions with Zelensky at their meeting in kyiv on Thursday.
Kellogg congratulated Zelensky as a “courageous chief” – only a few days after Trump called him “dictator”.
In recent days, Zelensky has made telephone calls with various world leaders, who have expressed their commitment to guarantee that Ukraine is involved in peace talks.
Trump, in his Fox interview on Friday, said Russia and Ukraine will not want to start peace talks without his own personal involvement.
He also continued to criticize Zelensky, saying: “I have been looking at this man for years now when his cities are demolished, while his people are killed, while his soldiers have decimated.
“I watched him negotiate without cards. He has no cards, and you are fed up. You’re just fed up, and I got it.”
And after criticizing Zelensky in last week – using discussion points that analysts say that it sounds more as if they come from Moscow than Washington DC – Trump offered that “of course”, he would take a call telephone by the Ukrainian president.
He has repeatedly insisted that Zelensky was to blame for not having prevented war, saying that Russia could have been “expressed” from the invasion of Ukraine.
Asked about the absence of Ukraine during the peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Trump said that Russia “had found it impossible to conclude an agreement with Zelensky”.
He said he thought that Russia sincerely wanted an agreement to end the war, but that President Vladimir Putin “does not have to conclude an agreement.”
US vice-president JD Vance then retaliated to criticism who said Trump’s position on Russia was equivalent to “appeasement”.
“We negotiate to put an end to the conflict. It is” appeasement “that if you think that the Ukrainians have a credible path to victory. They are not doing, so that is not the case”, a- he said in an article on X.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and Washington seemed to be closer to the signing of an agreement that would give American rights to Ukrainian deposits of rare land minerals.
Trump said it as a way for Ukraine to reimburse the United States for its past military support. On Friday, he told journalists that the United States and Ukraine were “quite close” to sign the agreement, adding that the United States “would recover our money”.
On Friday, in a video address, Zelensky said that the Ukrainian and American teams were working on a project of agreement, which “can add value to our relationships”. But he stressed that “what matters most is to understand the details”.
The Ukrainian President had rejected the United States initial proposal made several days ago, saying that it “cannot sell our state”.
The White House security advisor Mike Waltz said on Friday that Zelensky was going to sign this agreement. “
