President Trump criticized Ukrainian President\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky\u00a0on Monday over the leader\u2019s resistance to cede territory to Russia, saying he disagrees \u201cvery, very severely\u201d\u00a0with Zelensky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get along with Zelensky, but, you know, I disagree with what he’s done. Very, very severely disagree. This is a war that should have never happened,\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Russia\u2019s more than three-year war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
In an attempt to broker an end to the conflict, Trump\u00a0announced last week<\/a> he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.<\/p>\n Trump has said the meeting will touch on some territorial swapping for \u201cthe betterment of both\u201d countries, a proposal Zelensky staunchly opposed<\/a> Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we will not give Russia any awards for what it has done. The Ukrainian people deserve peace,\u201d he said, adding that \u201call partners\u201d must understand peace and that \u201cUkrainians will not give their land to an occupier.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said he was perturbed by the Ukrainian leader\u2019s resistance. <\/p>\n “I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, ‘Well, I have to get constitutional approval.’ I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap \u2014 because there’ll be some land swapping going on,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n He added that the land swap will be \u201cfor the good of Ukraine,\u201d before adding that a possible deal will also involve \u201csome bad stuff for both\u201d Kyiv and Moscow. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, it’s good and there’s bad, but it’s very complex, because you have lines that are very uneven, and there’ll be some swapping. There’ll be some changes in land,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The president\u2019s comments come after his special envoy\u00a0Steve Witkoff\u00a0met with Putin\u00a0in Moscow<\/a> last week, during which the Russian leader\u00a0reportedly shared<\/a>\u00a0a ceasefire proposal that would entail Ukraine withdrawing its military from the Donetsk region, allowing it to be under the Kremlin\u2019s control, along with Luhansk.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zelensky has not been invited to the summit with Putin. Trump said Monday he hoped a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, with or without his involvement, would follow Friday’s meeting in Alaska. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I\u2019ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, I\u2019m going to put the two of them in a room. I\u2019ll be there, or I won\u2019t be there, and I think it\u2019ll get solved,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Trump criticized Ukrainian President\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky\u00a0on Monday over the leader\u2019s resistance to cede territory to Russia, saying he disagrees \u201cvery, very severely\u201d\u00a0with Zelensky. \u201cI get along with Zelensky, but, you<\/p>\n