US President Donald Trump’s inner circle advises him not to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin until he commits to a full ceasefire. This is reported by NBC News with reference to two administration officials.
According to the network, the administration officials warned that Trump may suddenly decide he wants to talk to Putin, but they advised him that a phone call is not a good idea until Putin conveys to the White House that he agrees to a full ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The message came amid a visit by Putin’s spokesman Kirill Dmitriev to Washington.
Read also: Dmitriev told about the main topic of talks with the US presidential administration
He met with White House officials and Republican lawmakers at the White House last night, according to three US officials familiar with the meetings. It is not known if Trump attended the meeting at any point.
Dmitriev met with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma last night at the White House at Trump’s request. According to the three U.S. officials, the group discussed the terms of an end to the war in Ukraine and Putin’s demands for a ceasefire.
In late March, Trump said in an interview with NBC News that he planned to speak with Putin this week. He also said he was “very angry” at Putin for repeating his doubts about the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. According to Trump, Putin’s statements show a “move in the wrong direction.”
We are talking about the statements made by the Russian president on Thursday, 27 March. Putin called Zelensky and” civil authorities ” in Ukraine illegitimate and said that it is necessary to think about the introduction of international governance in Ukraine under the auspices of the UN. The UN, like Kiev, rejected the idea. NBC noted that Trump himself had earlier called Zelensky a “dictator without elections”, but later the US president did not develop this topic.