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Donald Trump has said he plans to call Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days as his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine appear to have reached an impasse.
“I’ll be speaking to him over the next few days,” Trump said on Wednesday at the White House, adding he was “not happy” with the continued loss of life in the war.
After a flurry of diplomatic activity in August, which included a summit in Alaska and a visit to the White House by several European leaders, momentum to end the conflict has stalled, with Putin balking at Trump’s proposal of a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump, who has grown increasingly exasperated with Putin in recent months, said he had made his position clear to Russia’s leader.
“He knows where I stand,” he said. “Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it or unhappy. And if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen.”
Trump’s comments came as he sat in the Oval Office with Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, who was on his first official overseas trip since taking office last month. The visit was closely watched in Warsaw amid tensions between him and the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk over who should lead the country’s foreign policy.
Trump told Nawrocki US troops would remain in Poland, despite indications that his administration is seeking to withdraw an unspecified number of troops from Europe.
The US has some 10,000 personnel stationed in Poland on a rotational basis and Trump said he was “very happy” with the arrangement. “We’ll put more there if they want,” he added.
However, Trump appeared irritated when asked why he had yet to take action against Putin, who has shown little appetite to engage in peace talks.
“How do you know there’s no action?” said Trump, who pointed to the imposition last month of a 50 per cent tariff on India, one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil.
Trump has repeatedly sought to impose a timeline on Putin to come to the negotiating table or face further US economic penalties.
On August 22, he set another two-week deadline for Putin to agree to a meeting with Zelenskyy or face unspecified consequences from Washington. That period expires on Thursday.
Trump on Wednesday said measures have been prepared to impose further penalties on Moscow should he decide to do implement them. “I haven’t done phase two yet or phase three,” he said.
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Putin was pictured alongside China’s President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing on Wednesday as he attended China’s largest military parade.
The three leaders have deepened their ties in recent years as they seek to challenge the US-led global order.
“They were hoping I was watching, and I was watching, Trump said. He added his relationship with all three leaders was “very good”, but was frustrated that Xi did not sufficiently acknowledge the role played by the US in ending the war.
“President Xi is a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech, because we helped China very much,” he said.