Trump hopes he won't have to choose between Putin occupying Ukraine and sending weapons to Kyiv

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has said he hopes that he will not have to choose between sending weapons to Ukraine and allowing Vladimir Putin to seize the country.

Trump said this in an interview with Fox News, Ukrinform reports.

Asked whether he would continue to help Ukraine with weapons or allow Putin to occupy part or all of Ukraine if he is re-elected president, he expressed hope that it does not come to that. According to Trump, the nine months between now and January 20, 2025, the date for the next presidential inauguration, are "an eternity in terms of war and in terms of politics."

At the same time, Trump said that there would never be a war under his presidency: "I would have negotiated a deal. I don't even know if I would have had to negotiate. They [the Russians] never would have attacked while I was president. […] If we had a real leader, he [Putin] would never have done that. Remember, he didn't do it. He didn't do it for four years. And there was no real threat that he would do it."

According to Trump, he spoke with Putin about it.

"I said: 'You can't do it, you can't do it.' He would never have done that if I was president, and all those people would be living, and all those big cities - you know, these ancient domes, you can't replace that. Those golden domes - they were beautiful, they were a thousand years old. You can't replace that culture... It's a terrible situation," he said.

Trump has repeatedly stated that he would quickly end the war between Russia and Ukraine, without going into details of how he would do it.

Photo: The White House