Washington [US], July 4: US President Donald Trump said his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 3 did not make any progress in efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine.
"I'm not making any progress with him," President Trump told reporters briefly at an air base near Washington DC, before leaving for an event in Iowa, according to Reuters.
On the other hand, President Trump said he had not completely stopped providing weapons to Ukraine but also blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for sending too many weapons, putting the US defense sector at risk of weakening.
"We're supplying weapons, but we've supplied too many weapons. We're working with them and trying to help them, but we haven't (completely stopped). You know, Biden has drained our entire country by supplying them with weapons and we have to make sure we have enough weapons for ourselves," Trump said.
Earlier, Reuters quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying that President Putin and President Trump had a phone call that lasted nearly an hour on the evening of July 3, in which Mr. Putin said that Russia would not give up its goals in Ukraine , but was still interested in negotiations to settle the conflict.
In a wide-ranging phone call, President Trump discussed the need to quickly end the fighting in Ukraine. President Putin said Russia was ready to continue negotiations, but would focus on eliminating the "root causes" of the conflict.
Mr. Ushakov said the two leaders did not discuss meeting in person, nor did they mention the US halting some weapons supplies to Ukraine. According to Mr. Ushakov, "our position is that the Ukrainian peace dialogue is between Moscow and Kyiv, and the United States understands that." In addition, the two leaders agreed to maintain dialogue.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
