Washington - Saba:
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he believes the Russian leadership is willing to reach a settlement to the Ukrainian crisis.
Trump told reporters at a Pennsylvania airport en route to Washington: "He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) often says he wants peace. I think he does, and I hope he does, and we'll find out soon."
Trump expressed his belief that a settlement could be reached faster than the 50-day deadline after which he promised to implement new restrictive measures. He said that secondary sanctions related to Russia could be "very bad," but expressed confidence that the situation in Ukraine would be resolved in due course.
In a related development, the White House confirmed that US President Donald Trump did not incite Volodymyr Zelensky to bomb the Russian capital, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, in order to "force Russia to negotiate," denying a report by the British newspaper, the Financial Times.
White House spokeswoman Caroline Levitt told Fox News, "The Financial Times is known for taking words out of context to attract readers, because it's a dying newspaper. President Trump was simply asking a question; he didn't encourage more killing."
Leavitt added, "He's working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war."
Earlier on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that Trump asked Zelensky during a phone call whether Ukraine would be capable of striking Moscow and St. Petersburg if the United States supplied it with long-range weapons.
CNN, citing sources, reported that "Trump is keeping the door open to allowing long-range missile shipments to Ukraine, which would enable it to strike deep inside Russia."
The sources added to the channel that Trump "did not rule out, in his conversations with European allies over the past few weeks, allowing the delivery of certain offensive weapons to Ukraine, including weapons that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously requested from the United States but have not yet been delivered."
The sources indicated that Zelensky confirmed Ukraine's ability to strike deep inside Russia if it possessed the necessary weapons. Following his call with Trump, subsequent discussions took place between Ukraine, European countries, and the United States regarding long-range weapons that could be sent to Ukraine.
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