Trump says 'somebody else' should negotiate for Ukraine and that Russia 'has been fine on Ukraine'

US President Donald Trump said on Monday 19 October, Washington time, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and suggested Ukraine should find someone else to negotiate on its behalf. He was speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a campaign event in Kansas, Anadolu Agency, HuffPost and The Kyiv Independent reported.

“Zelenskyy is a man that should have had this war settled a long time ago,” Mr Trump said, according to Anadolu. “I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.” He added: “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given us nothing.”

Asked whether he had agreed to a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Trump said he had not but “would do it”, adding: “Not so much for Ukraine because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.” He said such a meeting would be held “to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization”, Anadolu and The Kyiv Independent reported. Asked about a meeting without Mr Zelensky, he said he would do “anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody’s there or not”.

Mr Trump also said Russia had “done very little for Iran”, which he described as “a very positive thing”, Anadolu reported.

His comments came after Mr Zelensky criticised the US waiver of sanctions on Russian diesel. “Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness,” Mr Zelensky said, according to Anadolu. Last week he said the diesel deal put Mr Trump on “the wrong side of history”, The Independent reported.

For background, see Zelensky’s Bloomberg interview and Rubio’s denial of an intelligence pause.