Washington continues to support direct talks between Russia and Ukraine as there is no military solution – a diplomatic solution is needed, the US State Department has said.
“We continue to support direct talks between Russia and Ukraine. The President supports any mechanism that leads to a just, strong and lasting peace – any mechanism. There is no military solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a diplomatic solution is needed,” US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said during a briefing.
She noted that US President Donald Trump has been very optimistic about ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, and over the past few days “has been very outspoken in his opinion of President Putin.”
“What I can say is what, by the way, has also caused, I think, the President’s anger and our extreme concern is the attacks that are causing civilian casualties in Ukraine. The President has said repeatedly that this has to stop. We are following reports that the airstrikes carried out by Russia this weekend were the largest air attack on Ukraine since the war began,” she added.
On May 25, the US president sharply criticised Putin on Truth Social – after another Russian massive strike on Ukraine.
A few days later, on May 27, Trump again sharply criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin. “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t understand is that if it weren’t for me, a lot of really bad things would have happened to Russia a long time ago. And I mean really bad things. He’s playing with fire!” wrote Trump on the social media network Truth Social.
The Kremlin subsequently responded to Trump’s harsh posts, explaining it was “the emotional strain of everything absolutely.”
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the US president’s approach to the process of resolving the war between Russia and Ukraine “balanced”.
The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that Trump is considering imposing sanctions against Russia this week. The goal of the new sanctions is to force Putin to make concessions, in particular to agree to a 30-day ceasefire, which the US president insists on. According to the WSJ source, there is no final decision on new sanctions against Russia yet.