President-elect Donald Trump said he understood Russia’s adversarial stance on Ukraine’s NATO membership, lamenting that he will not meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before his inauguration later this month.
During a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump criticized outgoing President Joe Biden for allegedly altering US policy regarding NATO’s openness to Ukraine.
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“A big part of the problem is, Russia – for many, many years, long before Putin – said, ‘You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine,’” he said, per Reuters. “Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone.”
Trump claimed that Biden’s support of Ukraine joining NATO has justifiably heightened tensions with Russia. “And somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘No. They should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”
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Despite NATO’s formal support for Ukraine’s future membership since the 2008 Bucharest Summit, the country has yet to receive an invitation to join the alliance. Trump and his allies have often expressed opposition in public statements to Ukraine gaining NATO membership for Ukraine in the foreseeable future.
He previously claimed he could end the war before assuming the presidency but has since tempered those expectations. When asked on the campaign trail about a timeline for a resolution of the war, he talked about hope for a solution within months but acknowledged the complexities involved.
“I hope to have six months. No, I would think, I hope long before six months,” Trump said. “Look, Russia is losing a lot of young people, and so is Ukraine, and it should have never been started.”
Trump also complained that he would not be able to meet Putin until after his inauguration, emphasizing that such a meeting would be inappropriate before officially taking office.
“I know that Putin would like to meet,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate that I meet until after the 20th which I hate, because, you know, every day people are being – many, many young people are being killed.”
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