President Trump said Tuesday that Moscow should be off-limits to Ukrainian attacks amid media reports that he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about whether Kyiv had the firepower to attack Moscow and St. Petersburg.
“He shouldn’t target Moscow,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to Pittsburgh for an energy and artificial intelligence summit.
Mr. Trump stressed that he’s “on nobody’s side” other than simply all about stopping the killing.
However, a Financial Times report citing multiple sources said Mr. Trump inquired about whether Ukraine could strike Russia’s two biggest cities.
“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? … Can you hit St. Petersburg too?” Mr. Trump asked Mr. Zelenskyy on a July 4 call.
Mr. Zelenskyy, who has asked the U.S. and its Western allies for years to provide long-range missiles, responded, “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he’s “not looking into” providing Ukraine with such weapons.
The July 4 call between the two leaders came after Mr. Trump had a frustrating phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Trump said he walked away from the call convinced that Russia wasn’t interested in ending its war with Ukraine.
The White House has insisted that Mr. Trump’s comments with Mr. Zelenskyy were taken out of context, suggesting that the American president was encouraging the Ukrainian leader to escalate his attacks by going deep into Russian territory.
“The Financial Times is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks because the paper is dying,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump announced a deal with NATO for the U.S. to supply more weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems, and what Mr. Trump described as a “full complement” of firepower.
The deal could include other weapons such as long-range missiles, which would let Ukraine attack Russia’s war machine.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump gave Mr. Putin a 50-day ultimatum to work out a peace deal or face additional tariffs of 100% on exports from Moscow.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump stated that a deal could be reached before the 50-day deadline expires.
“Well, I don’t think 50 days is very long,” he said. “And it could be sooner than that. You should have asked that same question to [former President] Biden. Why did he get us into this war?”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.