U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday voiced frustration over ongoing violence in Ukraine as his administration continues to pursue a deal to end the three-year war.
“I’m not happy about what’s going on” in Ukraine, Trump told reporters at the White House, saying that “they’re bombing like crazy right now,” even as he claimed the parties were “sort of close” to a deal.
Trump did not single out Russia specifically in his comments, but the Russian military has launched a number of deadly strikes against Ukraine over the past week, including a Friday strike on Kryvyi Rih that killed 14 people.
Describing the situation as “not good,” Trump said: “We’re meeting with Russia, we’re meeting with Ukraine, and we’re getting sort of close, but I’m not happy with all the bombing that’s gone on in the last week or so.”
“It’s horrible. It’s a horrible thing,” he added.
In March, Trump said he was “pissed off” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Sunday, he told reporters: “We’d like them to stop. I don’t like the bombing.”
His comments came hours after the Kremlin said it supported the idea of a truce but still had “many questions” about how a ceasefire would work — pushing back on U.S. and European accusations that it was stalling for time.
Despite Trump’s campaign promise to bring peace to Ukraine “within 24 hours” of returning to office in January, Russia has continued its strikes unabated.
Putin in March rejected a joint U.S.-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional, full ceasefire.
AFP contributed reporting.
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