US President Donald Trump says Russian information may be influencing members of his team as they seek to reach a peace settlement.
“They’ve probably been influenced to settle this issue because Ukraine wants it to be settled. I think they have to resolve it and Russia wants it resolved. And I think if I were president, this would never happen. (Secretary of State) Marco (Rubio) is doing a great job, and (special envoy) Steven Whitkoff has been incredible. (Homeland Security Advisor to the President) Mike Walz. There’s a great group of people working on this, and they’re spending a significant portion of their day to resolve something that actually affects us financially because we’ve given away so much money,” he said after the cabinet meeting.
In an interview with the US magazine Time on 24 March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that the United States administration might be influenced by Russian disinformation.
The president expressed more concern about the likely influence of Russian disinformation on the US administration. He called President Trump’s statements about the alleged encirclement of thousands of Ukrainian military in the Kursk region false.
According to Zelensky, the fact that Trump kept repeating this thesis shows a pattern. He believes that US officials have begun to take Russian President Vladimir Putin’s word for it instead of their own intelligence.
“I believe Russia was able to influence certain people in the White House team with information. Their signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to stop the war and something should be done to force them,” he said.