Trump hints Ukraine election may be needed for peace – as he addresses Kyiv being left out of Russia talks
Donald Trump has suggested Russia’s war in Ukraine could have been “settled very easily” as he criticised Kyiv’s negotiation skills.
In comments after an extraordinary meeting between senior American and Russian officials on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, the US president said of Ukraine: “They’ve had a seat [at the table] for three years and a long time before that.
“This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without, I think, the loss of much land and without the loss of any lives and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their side.”
While touting his own negotiation skills, Mr Trump also said he was “more confident” about a peace deal after Tuesday’s talks, attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
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While speaking from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Mr Trump also said he would not oppose seeing European peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
He also repeated a proposal that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold elections in Ukraine as a condition of peace.
‘Not a Russian thing’
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down to 4% approval rating.”
He added: “If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people have to say – it has been a long time since they had an election?
“That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also.”
Mr Trump also told reporters he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had discussed Ukraine before the full-scale invasion in 2022.
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“President Putin and I would talk about Ukraine, and it was the apple of his eye, I will tell you that,” he said.
“But he never, there was never a chance of him going in. And I told him: ‘You better not go in, don’t go in, don’t go in.’ And he understood that and he understood it fully.”
US and Russia ‘need vibrant diplomatic missions’
Mr Trump added he will probably meet with Mr Putin before the end of the month.
At Tuesday morning’s talks, US and Russian officials agreed to restore embassy staffing and establish a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine in another sign of the significant American change in diplomatic relations with Moscow.
Mr Rubio said the two countries “need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally”. The US and Russia also agreed to explore closer relations and economic cooperation at the meeting.
“Should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly, economically, on issues that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term,” Mr Rubio said.
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He added ending Russia’s war in Ukraine would require concessions from all sides.
The comments came as talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia ended – part of a remarkable US policy reversal after years of former president Joe Biden leading international efforts to isolate Moscow.
‘Very useful’ talks, Lavrov says
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said “the conversation was very useful”.
“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” Mr Lavrov said.
“And I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position, which we have once again outlined in detail, using specific examples, based on President Putin’s repeated speeches.”
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said even though Ukraine was not at the table on Tuesday, any actual peace negotiations will include the country.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country will not accept any outcome from this week’s talks if Kyiv does not take part. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting.
Inside Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia. Pic: Reuters
Ukraine losing ground to Russia
The talks came as Ukraine is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago.
The Ukrainian air force said Russian troops launched a barrage of 176 drones at Ukraine on Monday night, most of which were destroyed or disabled by jamming.
One Russian drone struck a residential building in Dolynska in the Kirovohrad region, wounding a mother and her two children and prompting an evacuation of 38 apartments, the regional administration reported.
Four more residential buildings were damaged by drone debris in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine, according to local officials.
European allies left scrambling
Ties between Russia and the US had fallen to their lowest level in decades in recent years – a rift that had been widening since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and worsened after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
At that point, the US, along with European nations, imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia and the allies have repeatedly expanded the measures to damage the Russian economy.
But the recent US diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Mr Zelenskyy and key European allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that will not be favourable to Ukraine.
On Monday, France called an emergency meeting of European nations, including the UK, to discuss the war.
Saudi Arabia seeks to be diplomatic player
The meeting between the US and Russia on Tuesday at the Diriyah Palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh also highlights de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to be a major diplomatic player, burnishing a reputation severely tarnished by the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi state media described the talks as happening at the prince’s direction. Saudi Arabia has also helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Mr Zelenskyy for an Arab League summit in 2023.
Mr Zelenskyy had been due to travel to Saudi Arabia this week but rescheduled it to 10 March, suggesting he wanted to avoid his visit being linked to the US-Russia talks since Ukrainian officials were not invited.
Pro-Western candidate Nicusor Dan has unexpectedly beaten hard-right populist George Simion in the Romanian presidential election.
Mr Simion, 38, and his rival – a centrist who’s mayor of Bucharest – faced off in the second round of the contest.
According to the official tally, Mr Dan was leading by nearly nine percentage points with more than 98% of the votes counted.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Dan and his supporters celebrated the exit polls. Pic: Reuters
After exit polls suggested he wasn’t going to win, Trump-supporting Mr Simion rejected the result and said estimates put him 400,000 votes ahead.
Speaking after voting ended, Mr Simion said his election was “clear” as he posted on Facebook: “I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!”
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George Simion on Trump, the EU – and his message to UK
Romania’s last election was annulled after its highest court ruled the leading candidate, nationalist Calin Georgescu, should be disqualified due to claims of electoral interference by Russia.
The result is surprising because in the first round, 38-year-old Mr Simion, founder of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), took 40.96% of the vote – almost 20 points ahead.
George Simion rejected the polls but official counting saw him slip behind. Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Dan celebrated on the streets of the capital Bucharest. Pic: AP
An opinion poll on Friday had it much closer, but still suggested the two men were virtually tied.
Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, is running as an independent and has pledged to clamp down on corruption.
He is also staunchly pro-EU and NATO, and has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security.
When voting closed at 9pm local time, 11.6 million people – about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. About 1.64 million Romanians living abroad also took part.
About 11.6 million people – 64% of eligible voters – cast ballots. Pic: AP
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The election is being closely watched across Europe amid a rise of support for President Donald Trump.
After polls closed, Mr Dan said “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in the latest vote “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said.
“There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report issued last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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A British surgeon working in southern Gaza has compared the region to a “slaughterhouse” because of the daily bombardment from Israeli forces.
Dr Tom Potokar, who is based at the European Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, offered his assessment of Israel’s military offensive after Palestinian health officials reported at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed their troops have begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
In a video, Dr Potokar said it was “another day of devastation here in Gaza”, adding: “The stories coming from the north… absolutely horrific… particularly around the Indonesian Hospital.”
“I mean, it’s difficult to describe in words what’s happening here… [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead.
“If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse.”
Mourners at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
His reference to Cambodia’s killing fields refers to when more than a million people were murdered in mass executions and buried by the extreme communist guerrilla group, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
A family in grief at a funeral on Sunday in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Dr Potokar described the impact on those on the ground, saying: “We’ve been operating all morning so far and [treating] awful explosive injuries… [including] one young woman with leg fracture and shoulder fracture and a large wound on her buttock, who came in yesterday and is not yet aware that everyone in our family was killed in the onslaught.”
Israel has launched an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
On Sunday, it announced and launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza.
It came after airstrikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said: “Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment”.
The ministry also said the bombardment had forced the closure of the Indonesian Hospital, the main hospital serving people in northern Gaza.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said more than 48 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the area which includes tents sheltering displaced people.
In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the Nuseirat camp’s Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Civil Defence – which operates under the Hamas-run government – reported that 19 people were killed in several strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
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Ceasefire talks are taking place in Qatar this weekend – with Israel saying they involve discussions on ending the war as well as a truce and hostage deal.
A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any lasting truce must include the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the exile of Hamas militants.
But a senior Israeli official added there had been little progress so far during talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
Sky News Arabia reported Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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