LATEST: Zelensky Responds to Donald Trump’s Plan to Stop War ‘in 24 Hours’
Donald Trump has claimed he could stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine “in 24 hours” and then spectacularly failed to explain just how he would do it.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Speaking on Thursday night during a town hall event on Fox News, the former president also said he “got along with Putin” and made bizarre comments about the current waves of Russian missile and drone attacks against Kyiv.
- Obtain the freshest war in ukraine update from the Kyiv Post's daily news coverage today.
- Read the most current Ukraine news stories for today.
When asked about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said: “I want to stop that war, I don’t want that war to continue.
“And I’ll stop that war, mark my words, I’ll stop that war in 24 hours.”
The event’s host Sean Hannity then interrupted to say: “Mr President, let me ask. Serious question. How do you stop that war in 24 hours?”
Instead of a straight answer, Trump then indulged in a rambling speech that contained lots of words, a liberal sprinkling of fantasy, but very little of any actual substance.
Donald Trump claims he will end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.” Pressed by Sean Hannity on how, he struggles to respond:
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) June 2, 2023
“I will get them into a room ... and I’m telling you, within 24 hours that whole thing will be settled.”
pic.twitter.com/aZMLZOmcTb
“I get along with [Zelensky], I get along with Putin. It would have been much easier to stop it before it started. Putin would have never done this; it would have been much easier. Right now, it’s a mess.
Avoiding the topic of how to stop the war in 24 hours, Trump switched to describing the recent Russian attacks against Ukraine’s capital.
Kyiv Marks Christmas by Dressing Up Founders’ Statues
“Right now, they’re hitting Kyiv, and they’re hitting all sorts of things that weren’t supposed to be hit, the country is being decimated.
“By the way, the deaths are far more than they’re reporting. When they say ‘nine apartment buildings got knocked down and two people got hurt’, no, no, hundreds of people died.
“The numbers are much different from what you’re being told.”
During the entire war, Ukraine has never claimed “nine apartment buildings got knocked down” and Ukrainian authorities have made no efforts to conceal the death tolls from Russian missile strikes as they grimly illustrate the horrific toll being wrought by the Kremlin.
There have been numerous instances of Russian missiles hitting residential buildings resulting in large death tolls such as the Dnipro strike in January that killed 46 people.
And as for the recent strikes that Trump was referring to, thanks in large part to US-supplied air defense systems, the only damage to buildings in the capital over the last month has been due to falling debris from intercepted missiles and drones.
Several people have been killed and injured but nowhere near the “hundreds” Trump is referring to.
Getting back on topic, Trump then outlined his grand plan for stopping the war.
“I will get them into a room, and I know an exact way. You tell one ‘you’re not going to get anything unless you make a deal.’ You tell the other one ‘they’re going to get a lot unless you make a deal.’
“And you just sit them, and you put them, and you have to make a determination.”
Although Trump did not say which one was which, his comments appear to suggest he would force Ukraine to accept the loss of territories illegally occupied and annexed by Russian forces with the threat of rewarding President Putin with even more if they refuse to accept his offer.
“And I’m telling you, within 24 hours that whole thing will be settled,” he added.
Despite suggesting he would pander to the imperialist ambitions of Russia, Trump ended his rant by highlighting just one of the countless horrors Putin has inflicted upon Ukraine.
“It’s a horrible war,” he said. “It’s a vicious, vicious… I saw it today where missiles were going into cities, in this case, Kyiv, and you see the schoolchildren going to school and the missiles are following them.
“The whole thing is horrible. I will have that thing settled in 24 hours.”
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter