Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to manipulate the U.S. leadership and break out of isolation, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Sky News in an interview published on Sept. 16.
His remarks come after several deadlines set by U.S. President Donald Trump passed without new U.S. sanctions.
“He (Putin) definitely wants to trick the U.S.,” Zelensky said. “He’s doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent the U.S. and Trump from putting sanctions on him.”
“If you keep postponing applying sanctions any further, then the Russians will be better prepared.”
The Ukrainian president argued that Trump’s Aug. 15 summit with Putin in Alaska gave the Russian leader a platform to escape political isolation without paying a sufficient price.
“If it was a trilateral meeting (with Ukraine), we would have some result,” Zelensky added.
After the summit, Trump pledged to prepare direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents. Those plans quickly collapsed as Putin invited Zelensky to Moscow, a proposal Kyiv rejected.
Zelensky said a trilateral meeting with Trump remained his preferred option and invited Putin to Kyiv.
Trump said on Sept. 14 that he initially believed the meeting could be arranged easily but added that he would personally lead the possible talks, as the two presidents “are incapable of talking to each other.”
The U.S. president has been reluctant to apply new sanctions to pressure Putin into meaningful negotiations, limiting his actions to new tariffs on India’s purchases of Russian oil. Trump has linked potential new measures against Moscow to a stronger European action.
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