At the start of a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, President Trump said of three years of fighting in Ukraine: "What a mess. What a horrible, bloody mess." In broad-ranging comments on the state of the conflict, he said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine. Trump also expressed hope that the conflict could end within weeks and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would soon come to the US to sign a deal to give the US access to Ukraine's critical minerals to help repay some of the $180 billion in American aid that's been sent to Kyiv since the start of the war, the AP reports.
Asked if he'd call Putin a dictator after calling Zelensky one last week, Trump wouldn't say, offering only, "I don't use those words lightly." The news conference followed his Monday meeting with Macron. "The purpose of our meeting today is to end another battle, a really horrible one, a war, something we haven't seen since the Second World War that is ravaging European soil," Trump said. It was the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Trump again said "would never have happened if I was president." Asked if Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential deal to end the war, Trump said: "Yeah, he will accept it. I have asked him that question."
Differences with Macron were clear during the news conference, the BBC reports. Trump didn't mention security guarantees, while Macron said they were essential. "This peace must not be a surrender of Ukraine, it must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees," he said. Trump called for an immediate deal, while Macron suggested a truce followed by talks on a broader peace deal. "We want peace swiftly, but we don't want an agreement that is weak," he said. On Monday, Putin said he hadn't discussed a Ukraine peace deal with Trump in any detail, but he praised the president's approach to negotiations, reports Reuters. "He is in a unique position: He doesn't just say what he thinks, he says what he wants," Putin said.
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