Donald Trump, a longtime admirer of Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that the Russian president has been “somewhat weakened” by an aborted mutiny and that the US should use this moment to negotiate a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
“I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war,” Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview.
On Ukraine, Trump did not rule out that the Kyiv government might have to concede some territory to Russia in order to stop the war, which began with Russian forces invading Ukraine 16 months ago.
“I think the biggest thing that the US should be doing right now is making peace – getting Russia and Ukraine together and making peace. You can do it,” Trump said. “This is the time to do it, to get the two parties together to force peace.”
As president, Trump developed friendly relations with Putin, but said the Russian leader had been damaged by an uprising by the Wagner group mercenary force and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last weekend.
“You could say that [Putin’s] still there, he’s still strong, but he certainly has been I would say somewhat weakened at least in the minds of a lot of people,” he said.
As for war crime charges levied against Putin by the international criminal court last March, Trump said his fate should be discussed when the war is over “because right now if you bring that topic up you’ll never make peace, you’ll never make a settlement”.
Speaking expansively about foreign policy, the frontrunner in opinion polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination also said China should be given a 48-hour deadline to close what sources familiar with the matter say is a Chinese spy facility on the island of Cuba 90 miles (145km) off the US coast.
Trump would not comment on whether the US would support Taiwan militarily if China invaded the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own. “I don’t talk about that. And the reason I don’t is because it would hurt my negotiating position,” he said.
While Trump remains the top contender for the Republican nomination and has already begun campaigning with several town hall appearances on cable news, he continues to face serious legal troubles, including federal charges over obstructing justice and violating the Espionage Act.
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