President Donald Trump’s recent rhetoric about the war in Ukraine is getting a thumbs up from Russian state media.
Since returning to office last month, Trump has become increasingly critical of Ukraine, and even echoed a long standing Kremlin lie when he falsely accused Ukraine of initiating its conflict with Russia.
And earlier this week, Russian television presenter Vladimir Soloviov suggested Trump’s growing hostility toward Ukraine was no accident.
CNN’s Jake Tapper raised alarms about the president’s seemingly shifting allegiances during Sunday’s episode of “State of the Union,” where he confronted Trump diplomat Steve Witkoff with Soloviov’s comments.
In the clip from state-run network Russia-1, Soloviov said it was no “coincidence” that many of Trump’s recent stances “largely materialized” after his conversation with Putin earlier this month.
“The phrases he is saying are so deep and so correct,” Soloviov said. “They are in total alignment with the way we see things.”
This week Trump publicly parroted several of Putin’s positions, calling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” while later claiming the war “never would have happened” if he was in the Oval Office.
At the same time, American and Russian representatives are in the midst of ironing out a peace deal without direct input from Ukraine.
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Ukraine reportedly rejected several initial proposals which ordered Kyiv to hand over half of its revenue from rare earth minerals, oil and other sources to the U.S., but had no explicit guarantees America would provide further military support or other security promises to its former ally.
But on Saturday, The New York Times reported that Ukrainian officials were seriously considering the latest proposal, which is said to contain even harsher demands for the country’s natural resources.
Amid the negotiations, Washington and Moscow are said to be gearing up for a face-to-face summit between Trump and Putin, where they will reportedly discuss the war in Ukraine, as well as ways to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between their countries.