Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said peace efforts in Ukraine would remain stalled until he holds direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was notably absent from recent negotiations in Turkey.
“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Trump told reporters while en route from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates aboard Air Force One. “But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
His remarks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Ankara after publicly challenging Putin to attend the peace talks in person. Although Russia had proposed face-to-face discussions—the first since its 2022 invasion—it sent a lower-ranking delegation instead.
Asked whether he was disappointed by Putin’s no-show, Trump said: “I haven’t even checked. Obviously, he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there.”
While Trump has repeatedly expressed his willingness to participate in the Turkey talks, he has yet to do so. Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the American delegation.
Trump’s emphasis on personal diplomacy with Putin marks a sharp departure from the approach of his predecessor, Joe Biden, who maintained that Ukraine alone should determine the terms of any future settlement.
