President Donald Trump said no U.S. troops will be deployed to Ukraine to guard the border.
Trump spoke with “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, the day after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talk a possible peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“You have my assurance,” he said.
“I’m just trying to stop people from being killed,” Trump continued. “They’re losing 5,000 to 7,000 people a week in that ridiculous war that should have never happened. If we had a normal president — not even a great president — if we had normal president, it wouldn’t have happened.”
The president is hopeful a bilateral meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin can be arranged. A trilateral meeting could follow.
“They haven’t exactly been best friends,” he said. “Maybe they’re getting along a little bit better than I thought. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have set up the two [of them] meeting, I would have set up a [trilateral meeting].”
Trump stood firm on the stance that Ukraine would not be allowed to join NATO. He added a few European nations have said they would provide NATO-like protections, including security guarantees.
Trump then touted his success in bringing peace to warring countries.
“I’ve solved seven wars, we ended seven wars. I thought this would be one of the easier ones, and this has turned out to be the toughest one,” Trump said.
European leaders met Tuesday to discuss security measures for Ukraine.
French President Emanuel Macron told NBC News he did not believe Putin was interested in ending the war.
“When I look at the situation and the facts, I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now,” Macron said. “But perhaps I’m too pessimistic.”
He added, “the optimism of your president is to be taken seriously. So if he considers he can get a deal done, this is great news, and we have to do whatever we can to have a great deal.”
