Russian President Vladimir Putin offered some praise for President Donald Trump in an interview published over the weekend in expressing hope that the U.S. leader would \u201crestore order\u201d throughout the European continent amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump, with his character and stubbornness, will restore order there quickly. And all of them \u2013 you will see \u2013 it will happen swiftly. Soon they will all sit at the feet of their master and gently wag their tails,\u201d Putin said, according to a translation published by The Daily Wrap.<\/p>\n
The Russian president also claimed that Trump\u2019s candidacy was widely opposed throughout Europe and that some countries may have actually interfered in the U.S. election because \u201cmentally, the then-president Joe Biden suited them more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin added that \u201cTrump has different ideas about what is good and what is bad \u2013 also in matters of gender policy and other issues. And they apparently do not like that,\u201d the outlet reported.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trump on Friday suggested that the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine could be close to a negotiated settlement to the war that began with Russia\u2019s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be speaking, and I think we\u2019ll perhaps do something that\u2019ll be significant,\u201d Trump said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office, per ABC News. \u201cWe want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump did not say who in his administration had been in direct contact with either Putin or the Kremlin. Asked if he had personally spoken with the Russian president, Trump evaded: \u201cI don\u2019t want to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since taking office, Trump has been critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for not making a deal with Putin to avoid the conflict in the first place.<\/p>\n
In another recent interview with Russian state television, Putin praised Trump as a \u201cclever and pragmatic man\u201d who remains laser-focused on putting U.S. interests first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president,\u201d Putin said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t disagree with him that if he had been president \u2014 if they hadn\u2019t stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized the Biden-Harris regime for pumping tens of billions of dollars into Ukraine\u2019s war effort rather than seeking a negotiated settlement. To that point, however, Zelenesky said in an interview published at the weekend that he had no idea where Trump\u2019s stated figure of \u201c$200 billion\u201d in assistance comes from, adding that his government has only received a fraction of that amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it is said that Ukraine received $200 billion to support the army during the war \u2013 that\u2019s not true. I don\u2019t know where all that money went. Perhaps it\u2019s true on paper with hundreds of different programs \u2013 I won\u2019t argue, and we\u2019re immensely grateful for everything. But in reality, we received about $76 billion. It\u2019s significant aid, but it\u2019s not $200 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since 2022, Congress has authorized roughly $175 billion for Ukraine, but a significant portion of that funding has reportedly gone to American industries and various US government activities related to the conflict, RT.com reported.<\/p>\n
According to Germany\u2019s Kiel Institute, as of October 2024, the US had allocated approximately $92 billion in financial and military aid to Ukraine, while EU countries and the UK had allocated $131 billion.<\/p>\n
Zelensky also insisted that he has seen little actual cash, as more than $70 billion of the aid came in the form of direct military assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are also many other humanitarian programs I\u2019m uninformed about, except for knowing of their existence. Perhaps the US president\u2019s administration will audit these programs and find additional billions, but I don\u2019t know where those funds went,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered some praise for President Donald Trump in an interview published over the weekend in expressing hope that the U.S. leader would \u201crestore… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n