Trump: "I will bring Putin and Zelensky together."
According to today's Russian television website on September 17th, former US President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcasted on NBC News that if Ukraine had reached a peace agreement with Russia before the conflict began in February last year, it could have avoided hundreds of thousands of deaths and lost less land.
According to reports, Trump told NBC host Kristen Welk that the seizure of Ukrainian territory by Russia was "something that could have been resolved through negotiation.". He also said that "many people expect" Kiev to abandon its sovereignty claims over "Crimea and other parts of the country" in exchange for peace.
Trump continued, "Therefore, they could have reached an agreement with less territory than what Russia has already occupied." He said, "They could have reached an agreement with no casualties... They could have had a Ukrainian state. Now no one even knows if Ukraine will be completely taken over."
The "other regions of the country" mentioned by Trump are likely to refer to the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic", whose sovereignty was recognized by Russian President Putin three days before Russia began military operations in Ukraine. After the referendum held in September last year, both regions have now joined the Russian Federation, and the Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast, which previously belonged to Ukraine, have also announced their accession to the Russian Federation. Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in 2014.
The report also stated that Trump subsequently reiterated that if elected next year, he will reach a peace agreement within 24 hours.
He said to Welk, "I will bring them into a room, bring them together, and then I will reach an agreement."
Trump subsequently claimed that he had made Ukraine and Russia "peaceful" during his presidency, and stated that the low oil prices during his tenure in the White House would make it too costly for Russia, a major oil exporting country, to take military action.