Trump thinks Ukraine is’more difficult’ to work with than Russia.

Trump thinks Ukraine is’more difficult’ to work with than Russia.

In an effort to mediate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, US President Donald Trump has stated that he is finding it “more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine” than Russia.

 

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that the US is “doing very well with Russia” and that “it may be easier dealing with” Moscow than Kyiv.
Hours before,Trump had stated he was “strongly considering”large-scale penalties and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire with Ukraine was secured.

After Trump halted military funding to Ukraine,space technology company Maxar informed BBC Verify that the US has temporarily blocked Ukraine’s access to some satellite imagery.

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It occurs precisely one week after Trump chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for being “disrespectful”to the United States during a remarkable White House discussion.
Following that public humiliation,Trump suspended all US military assistance and intelligence exchanges with Kyiv this week.
Then,on Thursday evening, Russia launched a massive drone and missile assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Trump reportedly responded to this attack by threatening to impose additional sanctions on Russia, which was already under a lot of them.He said he was considering new tariffs because “Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now”.
But within hours, Trump suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin was acting as anyone else would.

“I think he’s hitting them [Ukraine] harder than he’s been hitting them,” Trump stated. “And I think probably anyone in that position would be doing that right now.”
He went on to explain that while he thinks Putin wants to stop the war,he is unable to say the same about Ukraine.

 

Trump responded, “I want to know they [Ukraine] want to settle and I don’t know they want to settle,”when asked why he had stopped providing help to Kyiv.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the West has avoided interaction with Moscow, thus Trump’s direct diplomacy with Putin shocked NATO allies.

The Americans want Zelensky to agree to a speedy truce with Moscow and to sign an agreement that would give them a significant share in Ukrainian minerals.

Zelensky has been advocating for the agreement to include strong security guarantees for Kyiv. Trump stated in a Friday speech that such a security guarantee would be the “easy part” and could be discussed later.
Meanwhile,the US temporarily blocked Ukrainian access to some high-quality imagery from US satellites,the space technology company Maxar told BBC Verify on Friday.

Because it enables armies to obtain intelligence about their adversaries, satellite imagery is a crucial asset during a conflict.
Numerous governments and businesses have contracts with the US-based corporation Maxar to supply satellite imagery.
The Global Enhanced GEOINT Deliver (GEGD) initiative is one of them; it provides consumers with access to high-quality images gathered by the United States government.

“The US government has decided to temporarily suspend Ukrainian accounts in GEGD,”Maxar stated to the BBC. “Each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data.”

The suspension was affirmed to be “in accordance with the administration’s directive on support to Ukraine” by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency,which is a division of defense.

As pressure mounts for Zelensky to accede to Trump’s demands, senior Trump officials will visit Saudi Arabia next week to speak with his staff.

The president of Ukraine has expressed his hope that the negotiations will be “meaningful”. He declared on Friday that his nation was “ready for peace as soon as possible” and that “concrete steps” had been suggested to bring about that peace.
“Every day,new Russian strikes and reality itself prove that it is Russia that must be forced to peace,”he stated.

In the days following his public altercation with Trump,Zelensky has apologized and attempted to repair ties with the United States.
According to US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Zelensky sent Trump a letter on Thursday that contained a “apology” and a “sense of gratitude.”

“Hopefully, we get things back on track with the Ukrainians, and everything resumes,” Witkoff stated.
As European governments move on with plans for far greater military spending, UK officials have stated that about 20 nations are interested in joining a “coalition of the willing” to aid Ukraine.
Five people were murdered by Russian troops in the Donetsk area of Ukraine on Friday, according to local authorities, as fighting on the ground continued.