Donald Trump clearly put pressure on this Friday, November 21, for Ukraine to agree to his plan to resolve the conflict with Russia, if possible within a week, saying that this plan is “definitely good” for Kyiv.
“He has to like it, and if he doesn’t like it, you know, they have to keep fighting,” the American president said, when asked about the rejection of his project by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a conversation with the press in the Oval Office, when he received New York Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Donald Trump also recalled how he very sharply told his Ukrainian counterpart that he had “no cards in his hand”, in a meeting in February.
Ukrainian fighters “very brave”
“I have a lot of deadlines and when things are going well, the tendency is to push deadlines back. But Thursday, we think, is the right time,” he said on Fox News Radio, when asked about the deadline he gave Ukraine to accept. Thursday, November 27 is the traditional holiday date of Thanksgiving, one of the most important days of the year for American families.
Donald Trump assessed in this radio interview that if fighting continues, Ukraine will “lose in a short time” territory that should, according to the 28-point plan supported by America, be handed over to Russia. “They are very brave,” he said of the Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not want further wars”, assured the Republican leader, when asked about the possibility that Russia will attack other countries in the region after Ukraine.
He insisted that his Russian counterpart was “punished” by the duration of the conflict, far longer than what Moscow envisioned when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday rejected the American plan, which in Kyiv is seen as highly favorable to the Kremlin, and assured that he would not “betray” his country.
