Kathrine Frich
Trump said he plans to call Vladimir Putin next.
International summits often produce carefully prepared statements and predictable handshakes.
But when two outspoken world leaders sit down in front of the cameras, the script usually goes out the window.
A park fight analogy
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met during the NATO summit in Ankara. Before they could sit down privately, the US president offered a surprisingly casual view on the deadly war.
“Imagine two kids in a park,” Trump told the press, according to Onet News. “They don’t like each other and they start fighting, and sometimes you have to let them fight and see that it’s a difficult situation.”
Zelensky sat quietly beside him.
Both sides want an agreement, according to Trump. He called the Ukrainian president “very effective” and described drone strikes inside Russia as “an escalation that could lead to the end of the war.”
Make them yourself
Air defense remains a massive priority for Ukraine. Trump addressed this directly with a major announcement about advanced weapons.
“One of the things we’re going to talk about is we’re going to give you a license to make Patriots, which is pretty cool,” Trump told Zelensky.
This move should stop complaints about a lack of American support. “That way you can’t complain that we’re not giving you enough. I said, ‘Make them yourself’,” he explained.
The president admitted he has not yet discussed the idea with Raytheon, the company behind the systems. Even so, he insisted that “everything will work out.”
Danger in the skies
Trump expressed hope that the conflict would end soon, noting that Russian terms for peace might be shifting.
“I think they’re probably getting a little better at things that you would like,” Trump said. He plans to call Vladimir Putin next.
The chat then took a strange turn. “Putin said he wanted to meet with Zelensky in Moscow. I told him, ‘I don’t think he’ll go there. Would you go to Moscow?'” Trump asked.
“It’s hard to fly to Moscow because there are so many Ukrainian drones there right now. It would be dangerous,” Zelensky said. Finally, Trump announced the US will buy Ukrainian drones, a move the Polish Press Agency says confirms a new deal.
Sources: Onet News, Polish Press Agency
