Russia on Monday said that someone would have to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make peace, stating that his public clash with former U.S. President Donald Trump had shown just how hard it would be to find a way to end the war.
Recall that Trump, alongside his running mate J.D. Vance, clashed with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday.
In the heated argument, Trump accused Zelenskyy of disrespecting the United States, adding that he was losing the war and risked triggering World War Three.
“What happened at the White House on Friday, of course, demonstrated how difficult it will be to reach a settlement trajectory around Ukraine. The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace. They want the war to continue.
“It is very important that someone forces Zelenskyy himself to change his position. Someone has to make Zelenskyy want peace. If the Europeans can do it, they should be honored and praised,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had sent scores of troops into Ukraine in 2022, sparking the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
Russia also seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 after a pro-Moscow president was ousted amid mass street protests in Kyiv.
Russian-backed separatists then began fighting Ukraine’s armed forces in the country’s eastern Donbas region.