US President Donald Trump during a telephone conversation with European leaders and President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky stated that he was opposed to new sanctions against Russia. This was reported by Axios with reference to sources. Trump’s conversation with European leaders took place after his telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Axios interlocutors, they hoped to hear that Putin agreed to the ceasefire or to decide the United States to impose sanctions for refusing to do this. Instead, Trump said that Putin “agreed to negotiations”, noted that the United States would not participate in them, and opposed the idea of imposing sanctions “currently”. According to Axios interlocutors, some leaders seemed “surprised” and “shocked” during the conversation. When Trump told European leaders and Zelensky that Putin agreed to immediately begin direct negotiations on the ceasefire, “several seconds of puzzled silence came,” the newspaper writes. After that, Zelensky noted that Putin previously agreed to negotiations, the first round of which took place on May 16 in Istanbul. Trump did not give a direct answer to this, report sources of Axios. Some European leaders during a telephone conversation asked about possible US sanctions against Russia, to which Trump replied that he did not consider this a good idea, emphasizing that, in his opinion, Putin wants to make a deal. Italy Prime Minister George Melonium asked why there could be no ceasefire for at least two weeks before negotiations. In turn, the German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz asked Trump what concessions Russia was ready to go for. Trump replied that Putin would introduce a memorandum with his conditions for the ceasefire and the war as a whole. According to the US President, he asked Putin to imagine “something that people could agree with”, and not proposals that would be immediately rejected. During the conversation, Zelensky noted that the previous negotiations with Putin did not give anything, and emphasized that if Trump does not put pressure, then the Russian president will “not budge”. The fact that Trump, after a conversation with Putin, called out European leaders and Zelensky previously reported the Financial Times. According to the source of the publication, they were “stunned” with a description of the agreements of Putin and Trump. The interlocutor of the publication did not specify that it was in Trump’s story that European leaders stunned. At the same time, the Financial Times noted that Trump’s public statements after a conversation with Putin indicate that Washington may abandon the role of an intermediary in resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Search Trump said that he has a “red line”, after the intersection of which the United States will stop pushing Moscow and Kyiv to the world. Speaking of Putin, Trump said that he believes that the President of the Russian Federation wants to end the war. (Tagstotranslate) News
