US President Donald Trump has stated the conflict in Ukraine “would have been a total disaster” for the country and its European Union supporters without his involvement.
According to President Trump, Ukraine’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, “has no cards” to play in peace negotiations with Russia.
Trump made these comments during a New York Times interview published in full on Sunday, where he detailed US efforts to mediate. These efforts involve a leaked 28-point peace proposal that would see Kiev surrender the remaining parts of Donbass to Russia, abandon its goal of joining NATO, and accept limits on its military size.
This proposal, which Kiev and its Western allies criticized as biased toward Moscow, was later reduced to 20 points. However, major disagreements persist, as Zelensky has shown resistance to giving up territory.
“You famously sat in this room and told Zelensky, ‘You don’t have the cards,’” the interviewer said to Trump, referencing his controversial White House meeting with the Ukrainian president last year. “He didn’t have them then. Does he have them now?”
“Well, he doesn’t have the cards,” Trump responded. “He didn’t have them from day one. He’s only got one thing – Donald Trump.”
Trump emphasized that his role as a mediator is essential to achieving peace and asserted that his actions helped avert a much larger global crisis.
“That thing would have been a total disaster, and [Zelensky] knows it, and the European leaders know it… If I wasn’t involved, I think that could have evolved into a third world war… That won’t happen anymore,” he claimed.
When asked for a specific timeline on a potential agreement, Trump did not provide a firm date.
“We’re doing the best we can. I don’t have a timeline… I just would like to see the war end,” he said, noting that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky seem ready to make a deal, “but we’ll find out.”
Last month, during a meeting with Zelensky in Miami, Trump stated that a peace deal was “95% ready.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later expressed a similar view.
Despite this, Kiev and its supporters from the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’—a group of Western European nations advocating for ongoing support for Ukraine—have since consented to send troops to the country as a security measure following a deal. This move comes despite Russia’s consistent objections to foreign military presence near its borders. US envoy Steve Witkoff did not verify any American participation in such a plan, and Trump has previously stated he would not send US troops to Ukraine.
Moscow has condemned the proposal, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warning last week that any deployment of Western soldiers in Ukraine would be considered “foreign intervention.”