Donald Trump told Fox News that he does not believe Russia will soon start a war with any of the NATO countries. Volodymyr Zelensky warned about such a plan by Russia the day before.
US President Donald Trump told Fox News that he does not believe Russia will soon start a war with any of the NATO countries. Zelensky warned about such a possible plan by the Russian Federation the day before.
"I do not agree with that" - with these words US President Donald Trump responded on Monday, February 17, to journalists from the Fox News television channel, asked to comment on the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about a possible Russian attack on one of the NATO countries - Poland or Lithuania - this year. Trump stressed that "I don't believe it for a moment".
"No, I think he (Russian President Vladimir Putin - ed.) wants to stop. That was my question to him. Because if he wanted to continue, that would be a big problem for us", Trump argued his answer. I think he wants to end this quickly. Both he and Zelensky - they want to end this."
At the same time, the American president emphasized that "under Obama (44th US President Barack Obama. - ed.) Russia managed to "take a lot" of Ukrainian territory, and now the Russian Federation "is trying to take everything". "This is very bad. This is really very bad. "Many people have died, many cities have been destroyed, and beautiful temples that are a thousand years old," Trump said on the eve of a planned meeting to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky: Putin will wage war against NATO
A day earlier, Zelensky said in a comment to NBC News that Russia could prepare an attack on Poland or Lithuania this year. "We believe that Putin will wage war against NATO. This could happen in the summer, maybe at the beginning, maybe at the end of the summer. I don't know when he will prepare it. But it will happen," the Ukrainian president said. In his statement, he referred to Ukrainian intelligence data, according to which Russia is preparing for new military exercises in Belarus with the participation of 150,000 military personnel. Zelensky recalled that it was with "only symbolic exercises", which have been taking place since 2021, that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
In turn, EU Council President Antonio Costa said in an interview with the Financial Times on February 17 that the Russian Federation poses a threat in a global format. "Security talks must take into account the fact that Russia is a global threat, not just a threat to Ukraine," he emphasized, recalling that the Kremlin has an "aggressive position" towards the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which are members of the EU and NATO.
US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia
Negotiations between US and Russian representatives to end the war in Ukraine will be held in the capital of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, February 18. The US delegation includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Mike Walz and Donald Trump's special representative for the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
The Kremlin announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov are flying to Riyadh for talks with the US delegation. The meeting will be aimed primarily at "restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations", as well as "preparing for possible negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian crisis" and organizing a meeting between Putin and Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 17.
First separate, then joint negotiations with Russia and Ukraine
In turn, the NBC television channel reported that the US delegation will hold separate talks with the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and then joint negotiations. That is why Ukraine was not invited to the talks between representatives of the United States and Russia in Saudi Arabia, two American officials told the television channel.
"We are working (with both Russia and Ukraine. - ed. note) and we give them equal attention. We want to end the killings and move towards lasting peace," one of the interlocutors of NBC said.