Following a high-stakes summit meeting with European allies at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump made a joke about getting a ticket to heaven by negotiating an elusive peace accord in Ukraine.
Trump said the pearly gates will open for him if he can make a breakthrough to end the war that has lasted for three and a half years, a day after the rare gathering of leaders claimed some modest progress toward negotiations with Russia.
“I think that’s pretty (good) if I can prevent the deaths of 7,000 people every week,” he told Fox News. If it’s feasible, I’d like to try to reach paradise.
Trump wryly acknowledged that he hasn’t done enough to win St. Peter’s favor thus far.
He said, “I’m hearing that I’m not doing well.” In actuality, I am at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Trump cleared away any ambiguity from his earlier comments by clearly ruling out the use of American forces to protect any peace agreement in Ukraine.
He acknowledged that both leaders must make compromises and that he still faces a difficult task in trying to get Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to meet in person.
He expressed his hope that President Putin would be good, saying that it would be a difficult situation if he wasn’t. And I’m hoping that President Zelensky will fulfill his obligations. He needs to be more adaptable.
Repeating a well-known pattern of stalling, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed the prospect of a summit in the near future, stating that it would take a long time to schedule such a sit-down.
After adopting Kremlin talking lines regarding the conflict, Trump left the summit with European leaders feeling cautiously optimistic that they limited the damage from the U.S. president’s meeting with Putin.
They asserted that they had made great strides toward developing specific Western security assurances for Ukraine that might be incorporated into a future peace deal.
However, they were unable to persuade Trump to return to his earlier position of calling for an immediate ceasefire, which Putin refuses. As a result, it is unlikely that the combat and Russian airstrikes against civilians in Ukraine will stop anytime soon.
