US President Donald Trump said Wednesday it was up to Europe to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, declining to make US promises as part of a deal for Ukraine’s natural resources.
‘I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,’ Trump said during his first cabinet meeting since his inauguration last month.
‘We’re going to have Europe do that because… Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.’
He also defiantly stated that the war-torn country ‘could forget about’ joining NATO as he pinned the blame of the war on the alliance, telling reporters: ‘You can forget about it. That’s probably the reason the whole thing started.’
The US leader then returned back to the discussion of a critical minerals deal with Ukraine, after telling his cabinet that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy will visit the US on Friday to sign a ‘very big agreement’.
‘The deal we’re making brings us great wealth,’ Trump said. ‘We get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we’re going to be able to settle this up.’
Trump went on to say it is a ‘great deal for Ukraine too’, suggesting there will be ‘automatic security’ because ‘nobody’s going to be messing around with people when we’re there’.
When quizzed on dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump branded him as ‘cunning’ while claiming he had ‘no intention of settling this war’.
‘He’s a very smart guy, he’s a very cunning person,’ Trump told reporters.
‘I’ve dealt with some really bad people but I will tell you as far as this is concerned, he had no intention, in my opinion, of settling this war.
‘I think he wanted the whole thing when I got elected, we spoke, and I think we’re going to have a deal.’
Trump went on to say that if he didn’t get elected: ‘I believe he [Putin] would have just continued to go through Ukraine’.
He added: ‘Over a period of time, a lot of people would have been killed.’
Yesterday Trump addressed the issue of sanctions against Russia during a press conference at the White House, stating that there are currently no discussions regarding their removal.
