Russia holds ‘the cards’ in Ukraine peace talks: Trump
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US President Donald Trump believes Russia has the upper hand in peace talks with Ukraine.
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US President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 18, 2025. (Pool via AP)
US President Donald Trump stated that Russia holds an advantage in peace talks over Ukraine because it currently holds a significant portion of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking to BBC aboard Air Force One, Trump said, "I believe Russia wants the war to end, but they have the upper hand because they've seized a lot of land."
After a meeting in Florida on Wednesday, Trump accused Ukraine of sparking the war and criticized its president Zelensky, suggesting that Kiev should hold new elections. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has seemingly weakened its leverage over Russia.
During a NATO meeting on February 12, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruled out Ukraine's NATO membership and peacekeeping troop deployment, adding that Ukraine would not regain its pre-2014 borders.
European leaders distanced themselves from Trump’s remarks, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius calling the US position a "mistake" and Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard warning against falling into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trap.
'Zelensky a dictator'
Trump’s statement comes after he described Wednesday his Ukrainian counterpart as a "modestly successful comedian" and a "dictator without elections," warning that Ukraine risks losing everything unless he moves swiftly toward a peace agreement with Russia.
"He [Zelensky] refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He asserted that his administration was successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something he claimed only he and his team could achieve.
Trump concluded, "I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….."
Trump's remarks came just hours after Zelensky pushed back against his claim that Ukraine was responsible for the ongoing war with Russia, accusing the US President of being caught in a Russian "disinformation" bubble.
