Trump warns Zelensky of “very bad consequences” without a peace deal

U.S. President Donald Trump said at a press conference that if Ukraine does not conclude a peace deal, the situation for it will become “significantly worse.”

“Ukraine has to want to make a deal, because the U.S. has spent a fortune on this, Europe has too, and Europe is already tired of it. If they don’t make a deal, in my opinion, the situation will ultimately only get worse — significantly worse,” Trump said.

If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not want this, “it will lead to very bad consequences,” the American leader warned. Trump compared Russia to a “big machine” that “keeps steadily moving forward.”

Earlier, the head of the White House said that Russia “is behaving quite normally toward Ukraine” and that Zelensky could have made peace long ago.

“If he had listened to me, he could have made a much better deal a very long time ago,” Trump stated.

In the American president’s view, it would be better for Kyiv to be represented by a different person.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously agreed with Trump that Zelensky does not want to take responsibility and move toward a peaceful settlement. At the same time, the Kremlin believes that “with all the desire, it is impossible to discuss anything without the current Ukrainian leadership.” Moscow wants peace and is striving to achieve it by peaceful means, but “as long as that is impossible, we will fight and we will fight with full force,” Peskov said.