President Donald Trump’s message for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “STOP!” airstrikes on Ukraine echoes a comment made by former President Joe Biden in 2022 in which he repeatedly warned Putin against using chemical or nuclear weapons in the conflict.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the peace deal DONE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday as Russian airstrikes rocked Kyiv.
Three years ago, during an interview with CBS News, Biden was asked, “As Ukraine succeeds on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin is becoming embarrassed and pushed into a corner — And I wonder Mr. President what you would say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons?”
“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden responded. “It will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
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The Thursday attack on Ukraine killed at least 10 and injured at least 90, including children, Ukraine said.
Trump’s message to Putin to “STOP!” was criticized on the Friday cover of the New York Post, which featured the headline “Words aren’t enough.”
On Friday morning, as Trump was leaving the White House to fly to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, he told reporters “I think Russia and Ukraine — I think they’re coming along, we hope. It’s very fragile.”
“We’re working on plenty of things that shouldn’t be worked on, because none of this stuff should have happened. This should have been taken place by Biden. It should have been fixed by Biden. But he couldn’t do it. Nor could he come close to doing,” Trump added.
He also said he has “no deadline” to resolving the war in Ukraine, but that he just wants to do it “as fast as possible.”
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Trump administration officials claimed they had productive talks with Putin, but they have yet to secure a deal that would end the war that has been raging since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Recently, several members of the administration suggested that the U.S. could end its efforts to secure a peace deal if Ukraine and Russia do not start making significant moves toward ending the war.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow on Friday to meet with Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also told CBS News that the Kremlin is “ready to reach a deal” to end the war. In an excerpt of an interview that is set to air in full on Sunday, Lavrov said he agreed with Trump’s assertion that talks between Ukraine and Russia were “moving in the right direction.”
However, Lavrov added there were “some specific points, elements of the deal, which need to be fine-tuned,” but did not explain what was being negotiated.
Lavrov also apparently made it clear to CBS News that Russia would not give up Crimea, which the country seized from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that his country would not recognize Russian control of Crimea, as it would go against Ukraine’s constitution. Trump slammed Zelenskyy over the “inflammatory” remark and said in a post on Truth Social that the comment was “very harmful” to peace efforts.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
