US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “wants peace” with Ukraine.
“I believe he wants peace. I believe that President Putin – when I spoke to him yesterday, I mean, I know him very well – yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
His remarks came a day after he held separate phone calls with Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Asked whether he trusts Putin, Trump said: "I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject. I think he'd like to see something happen."
During the call, Trump and Putin agreed to stop the deaths taking place in the war and to have their teams immediately start negotiations.
Following his phone call with Zelenskyy, Trump said a meeting is being set up for Friday in Munich, Germany, where US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead talks.
He later said that US and Russian officials will meet in Munich on Friday.
Asked whether Ukraine will have a seat at the table for the negotiations, Trump said: "They're part of it."
"Ukraine is also invited. Not sure exactly who's going to be there from any country, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine and from the United States," he added.
He reiterated that the Ukraine war has to end.
"It's a ridiculous war, and it has to end. We had a good talk with President Putin. I had a good talk with President Zelenskyy. Very good talk," he said.
Trump said the war started because former President Joe Biden said Ukraine could join NATO.
"I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position could allow them to join NATO…I believe that's the reason the war started, because Biden went out and said that 'They could join NATO.' And he shouldn't have said that," he added.
Trump also accused Biden of being "incompetent."
"And I think when he said that they could join NATO, I thought that was a very stupid thing to say."
Trump says he 'would love' to see Russia rejoin G7
Trump also said that Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven (G7) nations -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.
Russia was suspended from the G7 in 2014 due to its annexation of Crimea.
He said that was a "mistake" for the then-Obama administration to expel Moscow from the organization.
"I'd love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it's not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia,” said Trump. “They should be sitting at the table. I think Putin would love to be back.”
He reiterated his claim that the Russia-Ukraine war would have never started if he had been president.
"It's very possible that if that was the G8, you wouldn't have had the problem with Ukraine, and if I was president, you definitely wouldn't have had the problem with Ukraine. Russia would have never attacked Ukraine," he said.
