Trump
says it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia ‘fight for a while’
US president
casts doubt on peace efforts as German chancellor urges him to increase
pressure on Moscow
Andrew Roth
in Washington and Pjotr Sauer
Thu 5 Jun
2025 19.52 CEST
Donald Trump
has said it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” rather
than pursue peace immediately, as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, urged
him to increase pressure on Russia.
During the
Oval Office meeting, Trump voiced doubts about the potential success of peace
talks, saying “sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and
then pulling them apart”.
The US
president said he had told Vladimir Putin that the two countries were like “two
young children fighting like crazy in a park” when the two spoke by phone on
Wednesday.
Putin’s
reaction is not known, but the Russian leader would probably welcome the US
agreeing to his previous calls for Washington to stay out of the conflict and
stop providing military aid and support to Ukraine.
Merz, who
used his speaking time in the Oval Office to press the US president on Ukraine,
told Trump that he wanted to work together to put more pressure on Russia and
reminded Trump that the violence he abhorred seeing was a result of Putin’s
invasion of Ukraine.
He told
Trump that the German people owed the US gratitude for its role in defeating
Nazi Germany in the second world war.
“America is
again in a very strong position to do something on ending this war [in
Ukraine], so let’s talk about doing what we can,” he said. “We are looking for
more pressure on Russia, we should talk about that.”
Russia has
vowed to respond to Ukraine’s daring drone operation “how and when” it sees
fit, the Kremlin warned, seeming to confirm reports that Putin had told Trump
that Moscow was obliged to retaliate.
Ukraine has
been bracing for retaliation after its SBU security service carried out a
surprise drone strike over the weekend, targeting four airbases and damaging up
to 20 Russian warplanes deep inside the country, according to US officials.
The Kremlin
spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, asked on Thursday what Moscow’s response would be,
said: “How and when our military deems it appropriate.”
Trump said
Putin had “strongly” told him that Russia would respond to the recent attacks
on its airfields, during an unannounced phone call on Wednesday.
The US
embassy in Ukraine warned of a continuing risk of “significant airstrikes” and
advised its citizens to exercise caution.
Hours after
Trump and Putin spoke, Russia launched a series of missiles and drones across
Ukraine overnight. At least five people, including a one-year-old boy, his
mother and grandmother, were killed when a drone struck a residential building
in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky.
The child
was the grandson of an emergency responder, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, said. “One of the rescuers arrived to respond to the aftermath right
at his own home,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. “It turned out that a
Shahed drone hit his house.”
In the
southern city of Kherson, a large hole was seen in an administration building
after missile attacks by the Russian army.
But Russian
officials have suggested that Moscow has yet to respond to Ukraine’s weekend
drone attack, which came a day before two bridges collapsed, killing seven
people – attacks Moscow blamed on Ukrainian sabotage.
After
Ukraine carried out its unorthodox operation using drones smuggled into Russia
on trucks, pro-Kremlin war bloggers and prominent commentators posted on
Russian media to demand retribution, with some calling for nuclear retaliation.
While
Russian officials have previously indicated their willingness to use nuclear
weapons in Ukraine, analysts consider the deployment of such weapons on the
battlefield highly unlikely at this stage of the war.
Russia’s
nuclear doctrine permits the use of nuclear weapons in response to attacks that
pose a “critical threat” to the country’s sovereignty.
In a podcast
for the independent outlet Meduza, Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert on
Russian nuclear forces, rejected suggestions that Ukraine’s recent drone
strikes could justify such a response. He argued the operation did not threaten
Russia’s sovereignty or territorial integrity, nor did it undermine the
retaliatory capacity of its strategic nuclear arsenal.
A nuclear
strike would also be strongly condemned by China, Russia’s most influential
ally, with Xi Jinping previously warning Putin against the use of nuclear
weapons in Ukraine.
Instead, as
in past responses to Ukrainian military successes, Moscow may launch a wave of
deadly ballistic missile strikes – or deploy its experimental Oreshnik missile,
which was used at least once last year.
Ukraine has
intensified its sabotage operations over the past week, including detonating
underwater explosives beneath a key bridge linking Russia to the Crimean
peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
On
Wednesday, a visibly angry Putin for the first time reacted to the Ukrainian
attacks, accusing Kyiv of “organising terrorist attacks”. “How can we have
meetings like this under these conditions? What is there to talk about? Who has
negotiations with … terrorists?” he said.
Trump has
not publicly commented on the Ukrainian drone operation, but sources who
reportedly discussed it with him told Axios he described the attack as “strong”
and “badass” and saw it as a setback to his diplomatic initiative to end the
war.
While the
drone strikes dealt a tangible blow to Russia’s military capacity and offered a
morale boost for Kyiv, the broader picture remains less rosy for Ukraine.
More than
three years after launching its invasion, Russia is largely on the offensive,
making steady battlefield gains in eastern Ukraine and continuing to pound
Ukrainian cities and civilians with drones and missiles.
Putin’s
forces have been advancing further into Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy,
threatening the regional capital after taking more than 150 sq km of the area
in less than two weeks.
With Putin
showing no willingness to agree to a lasting ceasefire, Ukrainian officials and
the military are preparing for a Russian summer offensive, with Moscow intent
on advancing into the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
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