US President Donald Trump said he believes Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“I think he wants to make a deal“, Trump said in an interview with The New York Times.
“There were times when I had everything with Putin, but Zelensky didn't want to make a deal. That shocked me. But then there was the opposite. I think now they both want to make a deal. We'll figure it out," he added.
The US head of state said he was not ready to promise increased aid to Ukraine if the resolution of the conflict dragged on.
“I don't want to be in a position where I have to say that because I have an obligation to try to save lives,“ the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Trump said he was not setting a time frame for resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
“We're doing everything we can. "I don't have a time frame," he said.
The publication notes that the American leader refused to specify how soon he hopes the conflict will end.
The United States' deal with the authorities in Kiev for rare earth metals was a condition for Washington to continue its efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the head of state announced.
„I said that if we want to move forward, we need rare earth metals. We want our money back,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
The president has indicated that the United States should have a secondary role in a peace agreement that would provide military support to Ukraine in the event of an attack on its territory.
The United States is already unloading oil from the seized Russian-flagged tanker Mariner, President Donald Trump said.
He declined to say whether he had spoken to Russian President Putin since the ship was seized.
“We have seized a vessel and we are unloading oil right now,” Trump said. He declined to answer a question about whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the tanker was seized. "I don't want to talk about it," Trump said in response to a question about whether such a conversation had taken place.
Trump hopes that the United States will not have to pass legislation tightening sanctions against Russia, but he is ready to support it.
"I support it," he said, commenting on the new anti-Russian sanctions bill prepared in the US Senate. "I hope we don't have to implement it," the head of the US administration emphasized, quoted by Fox News.