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US President-elect Donald Trump criticized Ukraine’s use of US-supplied missiles for attacks on Russian territory in an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, comments that suggest he could alter Washington’s policy toward Ukraine.
“It’s crazy what’s happening. It’s crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. I don’t know “I should have allowed that to be done,” Trump said in an interview marking his nomination as Time’s Person of the Year.
Last month, US President Joe Biden lifted a ban on Ukraine using longer-range US-supplied missiles for strikes inside Russia, his latest attempt to boost kyiv in its battle against the Russian invasion.
The decision came after requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The White House cited Russia’s deployment of 15,000 North Korean troops along the battlefront as the main reason Biden changed his mind.
Few details
Trump has said he would like to quickly end the nearly three-year war, but has been cautious about the details. He told Time that he had a “very good plan” to help, but if he reveals it now, “it will become an almost useless plan.”
Asked if he would leave Ukraine, Trump said: “I want to make a deal, and the only way to make a deal is not to leave.”
He said the arrival of North Korean troops was a “very complicating factor.”
Trump, who will take office on January 20, met with Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last weekend. Trump’s promise to quickly end the conflict has raised concerns in kyiv that it could be done largely on Moscow’s terms.
Sources told Reuters that Zelenskyy used the meeting to explain Ukraine’s need for security guarantees in any negotiated end to the war with Russia. It has long sought membership in NATO.
Whatever Trump wants, it’s unclear how possible an end to the fighting would be.
Historian and journalist Anne Applebaum is skeptical that Russia is motivated to move in that direction.
“I haven’t heard anyone explain why the Russians would accept a deal of any kind.” she told Times Radio.
“Amazing” death tolls: Trump
Trump told Time that the number of people who died in the conflict, especially in the last month, was “staggering.”
“I’m talking about both sides. It’s really a win-win for both sides to get this done,” he said.
The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow’s forces advance at their fastest pace since the first weeks of the conflict.
Russia fired a hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the move as a response to Ukraine’s first use of American ATACMS ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to attack Russian territory with the West. permission.
SEE | Putin must be defeated, says former Ukrainian leader:
Petro Poroshenko, former Ukrainian president, discusses what a second Trump US presidency could mean for the war in Ukraine.
Washington says more deliveries of US air defense exports to Ukraine are on the way.
Last Saturday, the United States unveiled a $988 million aid package of new weapons and equipment for Ukraine.
Asked if he had spoken to Putin since his election, Trump declined to answer, saying: “I can’t tell him. I can’t tell him. It’s just inappropriate.”
Shortly after Trump’s election victory, Putin publicly offered his congratulations and praised Trump’s “brave” character after a failed assassination attempt last summer.
Putin launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, leaving both sides locked in an all-out war ever since.
The conflict has left thousands of Ukrainian civilians injured or dead. The United Nations says Civilian death toll in Ukraine reaches 12,340at the end of November. This is apart from the 27,836 civilians known to have been injured since the start of the war.
