Trump Says Ukraine Willing to Deal for End to War with Russia

Heading into Trump’s inauguration, he was pretty upfront about his desire to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible.

Trump has already sent a threat to Putin and Russia, and he is now stating that Ukraine has expressed an interest in ending the war as well.

It benefits no one to have this war continue, or as Trump called it, a “ridiculous” war.

Time to End It

While Trump was signing another slew of executive orders, reporters asked him about the war between the two nations.

Trump stated, "Yes, [Zelenksy’s] ready to negotiate a deal. He’d like to stop this.

"He’s somebody that lost a lot of soldiers, and so did Russia. … Russia lost more soldiers. They lost 800,000. Would you say that’s a lot? I’d say it’s a lot."

Trump was then asked if he would pressure Russia and Putin with sanctions, and he responded, "I don’t know, but I think he should make a deal.”

Trump added, "I think they have a lot of power over Russia, so I think Russia should want to make a deal. From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll meet as soon as we can."

Putin is already concerned about Russia’s economy, so any additional sanctions imposed by Trump could cripple his country.

But as we noted above, Trump sees no need to continue this war, stating, "Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven’t seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It’s a ridiculous war."

Putin clearly seemed receptive to ending the war, stating, "We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises.

"In my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises."

The problem as I see it is that Putin thinks he is in a position of strength, as there are clearly territories in Ukraine he wants to be returned to Russia.

During the campaign season, Zelensky seemed ready to compromise on this, but he is not going to let Russia pilfer his country away from him.

Trump is going to have to get Putin to more or less walk away from this war as it stands right now, and I am just not sure Putin will go for that.

Having said that, both countries have been crushed by this war, so perhaps Trump will be able to work out a deal where all parties feel they have won, and we can all move on and stop funding this utterly ridiculous war.