President Donald Trump took questions in the Oval Office alongside the prime minister of Norway on Thursday and was asked about his plans to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as what concessions he believes Vladimir Putin is making to end the war.
A reporter asked Trump if “Ukraine has to give some territory to Russia in order to win peace?”
“Well, it depends what territory. They’ve been fighting. They’ve lost a lot of territory. And we’ll get — we’ll do the best we can. Working with Ukraine, we’ll do the most we can, but they lost a lot of territory,” Trump replied, adding:
When you say Crimea, that was handed over during a president named Barack Hussein Obama. That was — had nothing to do with me, Crimea. That was 11 years ago with Obama. And they made a decision. There wasn’t a bullet fired, there was no fighting, there was no anything.They just handed it over. Now they say, Well, can you get it back? I think that’s going to be a very difficult thing to do. That was given by Barack Obama when he was president, not by Donald Trump.
“Mr. President, about the peace proposal that you put on the table. It’s a 30-day ceasefire proposal. Your national security team presented it to both Ukraine and Russia. Two months ago, Ukraine agreed to that ceasefire proposal immediately. Russia
“I don’t think so. I think that they both want peace right now. They’re ready to do something. We’ll see what happens. Complicated. Very complicated. But I think they are both very much looking to make a deal. Marco, what would you say?” Trump replied, turning to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Well, first of all, what was put before our partners was options to discuss about the things that it would take to end a war. This war is endable, both sides have to agree to it. We’ve shown them a pathway forward, we’ve discussed those ideas, there was a good meeting yesterday, there will be good meetings over the weekend. We’ve showed them the finish line, we need both of them to say yes, but what happened last night with those missile strikes should remind everybody of why this war needs to end. It’s horrible those missiles landed, what’s even worse is there are today people that were alive yesterday that are not alive today,” Rubio added.
As Rubio continued, Trump cut in, “But we are using a lot of pressure on both. You know, if you think we’re just in there because we’re nice people,
“What concessions, Mr. President, and to your national security team, what concession has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you’re closer to peace?” followed up Decker.
“Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country, pretty big concession,” Trump replied before another reporter asked about tariffs.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.