MOSCOW: Russia said on Thursday that Donald Trump’s assertion he could quickly end the Ukraine war should be viewed realistically, given that he had promised a West Asia peace breakthrough but failed to achieve it during his presidency.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had noted statements by Trump, who is running against President Joe Biden in November’s US election, and by his newly nominated running mate JD Vance.
“We saw the statements – Trump said he would resolve the conflict within 24 hours, then Vance said that China is a bigger problem for the United States than the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Zakharova told reporters. “It’s necessary to separate pre-election rhetoric from statements by government officials vested with the appropriate powers. If we talk about whether it’s possible to resolve the conflict, let’s be realistic.”
Zakharova said Trump, during his 2017-2021 presidency, had made ambitious statements about resolving the Middle East conflict. “They prepared for the ‘deal of the century’ for quite a long time, but it did not end in anything…,” she said.