US President Donald Trump claims that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy still "has no cards" and can only rely on the White House chief, according to an interview with The New York Times.
A journalist reminded Trump of how in February he told Zelenskyy in the Oval Office: "You don't have the cards."
"That's true. Well, he doesn't have the cards. He didn't have — he didn't have the cards from Day 1," Trump said in the interview, adding that Zelenskyy doesn't have them now either.
At the same time, the US president noted that the Ukrainian leader currently has "only one thing" — Donald Trump himself.
"If he doesn't have Donald Trump, that thing would have been a total disaster, and he knows it, and the European leaders know, and everybody knows it," the White House chief said.
Trump emphasized that Washington is doing "the best we can" and there are no timelines regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. According to the American president, without his involvement, "that could have evolved into a third world war."
During the interview, Trump was asked whether he would be willing to rearm Ukraine if Putin rejects the 20-point peace plan or drags it out.
"I don't want to say that. I just don't want to be in a position to say that, because I have an obligation to see if I can save lives," he responded.
Trump also stated that the war "costs us nothing" and that America is now making money from it. "I sell them weapons, and they pay full price for the weapons. I don't even sell them to them. I sell them to NATO," he said.
The president added that he wants "to save 25 to 30,000 lives a month," referring to casualties from the conflict.
When asked about timelines for a peace agreement, Trump said: "We're doing the best we can. I don't have the timeline."
Last week, Trump claimed that the United States is the only country "feared and respected" by Russia and China. He stressed that "without his intervention, Russia would now have all of Ukraine."
