On the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that his conversations with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had gone well.
Zelenskiy traveled to the summit alongside European allies with a specific goal in mind — to convince Trump that Ukraine’s military situation had improved, pointing to the country’s drone strikes that have reached deep into Russian territory.
When reporters pressed Trump on whether he believed Putin bore more responsibility for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the president declined to assign blame. “Well, I don’t want to comment on that, because I’m trying to get it settled, and that doesn’t make it easy,” Trump said.
Trump also addressed Ukraine’s interest in manufacturing U.S. missiles on European soil, saying the request would receive consideration. “They would like to be able to do that. We’ll take a look at it,” he said.
Meanwhile, a waiver that had allowed Russian seaborne oil to avoid U.S. sanctions expired at midnight Wednesday, and the U.S. Treasury did not issue a renewal. However, Trump administration officials did not immediately clarify whether that meant sanctions on Russian oil had been formally reinstated.
When asked directly whether Russian oil sanctions would be brought back, Trump told reporters: “We are looking at that, we’re seeing how far the price of oil comes down, it’s, it’s really tumbling.”
