Just two days after President Donald Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the conflict between the United States and Russia and Ukraine has been distanced from it.
Trump said Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on Wednesday that the conflict did not involve the United States, despite the fact that the United States has played the role of a mediator between the two countries since Trump was in January.
"It's not our people, not our soldiers... it's Ukraine, it's Russia," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday in East Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa.
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Washington on May 21, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Trump also mentioned that the Ukrainian president talked to Zelenskyy when he traveled to South Africa. Zelenskyy visited Ramaphosa in April, but his itinerary was short due to Russian attacks on Kief.
"I called Zelensky and they said, he's in South Africa. I said, what the hell is he doing in South Africa?" Trump said.
Ramaphosa replied that Zelensky was talking to him about ensuring peace with South Africa.
"We are working to achieve peace," he said.
Trump also said Wednesday that he believed Putin had "made a lot of progress" in his call on Monday, during which both countries eventually agreed to a ceasefire and conduct peace talks. However, Trump also said that both Moscow and Kiev need to lead in future negotiations.
"Only the conditions between these two parties will be negotiated between the two parties because they know the details of the negotiations and no one else will realize it," Trump said in an article on truth socialization on Monday.
Putin and Trump shake hands at a meeting
Trump and other members of his administration have said in recent weeks that the United States is willing to step out of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. For example, Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that the discussion between the two reached some "stalemate" and that the United States "will rather" come out of the negotiations.
"There is a fundamental distrust between Russia and the West. Frankly, this is one of the things the president thinks." "We should be able to go beyond. Mistakes made in the past, but... it takes two tango."
"I know the president is willing to do it, but if Russia doesn't, then we will eventually have to say...it's not our war," Vans said. "It's Joe Biden's war, it's Vladimir Putin's war. It's not our war. We're going to try to end it, but if we can't end it, we're going to end, you know what? It's worth trying, but we don't do it anymore."
This is a shocking news story that will be updated.