The US ex-president was commenting on the possibility of supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets
Former US President Donald Trump believes that Washington should negotiate for a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Ukraine and show a moderate approach to the issue of arms supplies to the country.
“I think the United States should negotiate peace between these two countries, and I don’t think they should be sending very much [military aid]. They should be negotiating peace,” Trump said in an interview with US radio host Hugh Hewitt, published on his website on Thursday.
The US ex-president was commenting on the possibility of supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.
When asked whether he wanted to cut off aid to Ukraine right now, Trump replied he wanted to make it so that Ukraine and Russia “fight for the last time.”
“This thing has to stop, and it’s got to stop now,” he added.
In his opinion, Washington’s allies in Europe have to “do much more, because Europe is doing probably just a small fraction of what we’re doing.”
“Obviously, it [the conflict] is bad for everybody, but it affects Europe more than it affects our country,” Trump said.
Earlier, the former US president criticized US President Joe Biden for his response to the conflict in Ukraine, saying that it may lead to the third world war. “I would have a peace deal negotiated within 24 hours,” Trump added, but gave no details on how he planned to achieve that.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said that Washington would not supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. On Tuesday, Poland’s Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz said that the issue of a possible handover of F-16 warplanes of the Polish Air Force to Ukraine is not a subject of any discussion at the official level. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also emphasized that his country considered it inexpedient to supply Kiev with fighter jets at this time. Recently, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius repeatedly stated that Germany was not going to deliver fighter jets to Kiev.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that tensions around the situation in Ukraine are rising due to Washington’s decisions and US pressure on other countries.
