President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the United States cannot give Ukraine all the weapons Kiev is counting on because the country must keep stockpiles for its own security.
“You see, we can’t give all of our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that. I’ve been very kind to President Zelensky and to Ukraine, but we can’t give everything because we won’t have enough ourselves. I don’t want to do that. I cannot jeopardise the United States,” the American leader noted.
Asked whether he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to end the war without occupying large parts of Ukraine, Trump said Moscow already controls certain territories.
“Well, he’s going to seize something. I mean, they fought a war and they have a lot of territory. I mean he has seized a certain territory,” the US president said.
Earlier, the media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump on 16 October, demanded that Ukraine completely give up Donetsk region, calling it a condition for the cessation of hostilities.
Putin allegedly said he was ready to cede part of the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions occupied by the Russian army in return. This demand, the Washington Post notes, was somewhat less sweeping than the position voiced by Putin at the Alaska meeting. Some White House officials saw it as progress, the publication’s source said.
Military expert Yan Matveev believes that the Washington Post, like the White House in August, again misinterpreted Putin’s words, and the Russian leader is still demanding the full occupation of Donetschina in exchange for Russia’s refusal to encroach on the territories of Kherson and Zaporozhye, which Moscow does not control.
Putin and Trump spoke by phone on 16 October. Following the two-hour conversation, Trump announced that the presidents would hold a face-to-face meeting in Budapest.
On 17 October, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The main topic of the conversation was arms supplies to Kiev, in particular the possible sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles. According to the publication Axios, Trump refused Zelensky in the supply of “Tomahawks” and made it clear that now his priority is diplomacy. The Ukrainian president himself said that “Trump did not say no”, but did not say yes either.