Speaking on his peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump told reporters that Ukraine did not need a seat at the negotiating table because it "should've ended [the war] in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."

And Trump’s attack on Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the United States for resisting Russia’s Blitzkrieg on Kyiv early in the war, was a graphic sign of how the new American administration has reversed Washington’s stance of supporting the victim of the invasion and is now rewarding the aggressor.

Following the talks between the United States and Russia on ending the war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump expressed his belief that Russia wants to put an end to the conflict, citing the toll the war has taken on soldiers,