Volodymyr Zelensky is cornered . While the US and Russia negotiate peace in Ukraine behind his back, Donald Trump rejects Kiev's protests, excluding him from the negotiating table, and relaunches, accusing the Ukrainian president of "having started the war" . He does so without articulating his thoughts too much, saying he is "disappointed" by Zelensky and invoking a hobbyhorse of Vladimir Putin, the elections in Ukraine to get rid of a president who, in his opinion, is delegitimized .
In one of the usual long press conferences following the signing of new executive orders, this time from Mar-a-Lago, the American president declared that the talks in Saudi Arabia with Moscow had gone "very well" and that he would "probably" meet Vladimir Putin by the end of the month .
"I am more confident than before," he declared after his emissary, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the Kremlin's emissary, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Riyadh established a sort of reset in relations between the United States and Russia for peace in Ukraine but also in view of new business deals between Washington and Moscow and an agreement on the balance of power in the world .
And if Zelensky complained about the exclusion of Kiev and asked for fair talks that also involve the EU, the United Kingdom and Turkey, Trump responded in kind. " I am very disappointed with Zelensky, I heard that he is angry about having a seat at the negotiating table. He has had it for three years, he should not have started the war ," he said, without further specifying his position, given that as is known it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. The tycoon also stressed that Ukraine is in a situation in which "there have been no elections, there is martial law and its leader has 4% of the consensus" . Another of Putin's hobbyhorses.
Trump, however, assured that he "is capable" of ending the conflict and said he was in favor of sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine once an agreement was reached : "That would be fantastic, I absolutely agree."
The American president also returned to duties, announcing a new wave starting April 2. "We will impose tariffs on foreign cars around 25% and above." As for the executive order of the day, Trump signed a law "to improve the accessibility and availability of in vitro fertilization for more Americans," a promise he had made during the election campaign.
(Unioneonline/L)