Donald Trump has suggested Russia's war in Ukraine could have been "settled very easily" as he criticised Kyiv's negotiation skills, APA reports citing CNBC.
In comments after an extraordinary meeting between senior American and Russian officials on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, the US president said of Ukraine: "They've had a seat [at the table] for three years and a long time before that.
"This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without, I think, the loss of much land and without the loss of any lives and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their side."
While touting his own negotiation skills, Mr Trump also said he was "more confident" about a peace deal after Tuesday's talks, attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
While speaking from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Mr Trump also said he would not oppose seeing European peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
He also repeated a proposal that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold elections in Ukraine as a condition of peace.
'Not a Russian thing'
"We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he's down to 4% approval rating."
He added: "If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn't the people have to say - it has been a long time since they had an election?
"That's not a Russian thing, that's something coming from me and coming from many other countries also."
Mr Trump also told reporters he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had discussed Ukraine before the full-scale invasion in 2022.
"President Putin and I would talk about Ukraine, and it was the apple of his eye, I will tell you that," he said.
"But he never, there was never a chance of him going in. And I told him: 'You better not go in, don't go in, don't go in.' And he understood that and he understood it fully."
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