Trump had been urging Zelensky to make peace as early as February

The Ukrainian authorities should have agreed to peace already last winter, and the U.S. was offering this at the time — but Volodymyr Zelensky refused. Now, the situation in many respects is no longer in Kyiv’s favor.

This was stated by U.S. President Donald Trump at a briefing at the White House.

“You know, when I was in this office, I talked about the absence of trump cards. I told him (Zelensky in February — Ed.) that you don’t have any trump cards. That was the moment when you needed to make a deal. I thought that time was much better suited for a settlement. But in their great wisdom they decided not to do it. Now many things are against them,” Trump said.

He added that the meeting between U.S. representatives Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin went well.

“As far as I understand, they (Witkoff and Kushner — Ed.) had a very good meeting with President Putin. We’ll see what happens next… What will come out of this meeting, I can’t tell you, because it takes two to tango,” Trump noted.

He added that with Ukraine “we already have everything pretty well worked out,” and that the Kyiv side is “quite satisfied, given the circumstances.”

In recent days, the media have reported that Trump is convinced Zelensky is bluffing when he rejects the terms of a peace agreement in order to try to secure better ones.