Donald Trump in the Oval Office in the White House, 2025. Photo: Yuri Gripas – Pool via CNP / MEGA / The Mega Agency
On Friday, 18 April, US President Donald Trump said that the United States may refuse to participate in the process of ending the war in Ukraine if one of the two parties – Kyiv or Moscow – slows down the negotiations. AFP reports this with reference to the president’s statement at the White House.
“If for some reason one of the two sides makes it difficult, we’ll just say, ‘You’re unreasonable, you’re stupid, you’re horrible people,’ and we’ll just drop it. But hopefully we won’t have to do that,” Trump said.
The American leader stressed that he wanted the fighting to end as soon as possible and condemned delays on any side:
“Think about it, a lot of people are dying every day while we’re talking – you know – when they’re playing games. So we are not going to accept that. But I think we have a good chance of solving the problem,” the US president said.
When asked about the timing of the decision, Trump replied:
“There is no specific number of days, but we want to do it quickly.”
His words were a response to a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who warned that the US could “move on” to other priorities if it did not see progress in the peace talks.
Trump emphasised that he does not play political games and that people’s lives are the most important thing to him:
“I want to stop the killing of soldiers on both sides. It has to stop.”
