By Christian Edwards, Anna Chernova and Edward Szekeres
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US President Donald Trump. Photo: ALEX KENT
US President Donald Trump suggests that Ukraine "may be Russian someday", throwing into question the future independence of a sovereign country that, with Western backing, has defended itself against Moscow's full-scale invasion for nearly three years.
Trump discussed his administration's effort to end the war in an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday (NZT), before a meeting tabled for this week between vice president JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"They [Ukraine] may make a deal, they may not make a deal," he said. "They may be Russian someday or they may not be Russian someday."
He stressed that he also wanted to see a return on investment with US aid for Ukraine, again floating the idea of a trade for Kyiv's rare earth minerals.
The US president's comments will likely delight the Kremlin, which has illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions since launching its full-scale invasion and seeks Ukraine's total submission.
"A significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia and the fact that it has already become Russia is [undeniable]," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, when asked about Trump's comments.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, it believed it would capture the capital Kyiv in days and the rest of the country in weeks. With the war entering its fourth year this month, Moscow holds about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.
In 2023, it held a sham referendum in four occupied regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - in an attempt to lend legitimacy to its annexation.
Peskov said people had "despite many dangers, stood in line and voted" in the referendum to join Russia. "This largely corresponds to President Trump's words," he added.
CNN reported at the time on the stage-managed referendum, which international observers dismissed as a propaganda exercise.
In the Fox News interview, Trump said his administration had made "tremendous progress" in laying the ground for potential peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. Zelensky said Monday that "some serious people" from the Trump administration will visit Ukraine this week before the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where Zelensky is will meet with Vance.
Trump repeated his interest in reaping a return on US assistance for Kyiv.
"They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things," he said. "I want to have our money secured.
"I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion of rare earth, and they've essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don't feel stupid. Otherwise, we're stupid.
"I said to them, we have to get something. We can't continue to pay this money."
Whereas the Biden administration said its support for Kyiv was to defend "the right of people to determine their own futures" and to maintain "the principle that a country can't change its neighbor's borders by force", Trump's comments reinforce his more transactional approach to geopolitics.
Trump's comments will likely come as a boon to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine by falsely asserting that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people - a single whole", and that Ukraine is not a sovereign country.
With some European leaders preparing to meet senior members of the Trump administration in Munich this week, Poland's President Andrzej Duda stressed on Tuesday that Russia "cannot draw benefit" from its war in Ukraine and should not emerge victorious.
Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, Duda said that, in a "perfect scenario, Ukraine should regain all the land that is occupied by Russia today", but conceded the priority now was to ensure "the war is stopped" not according to "Russian conditions".
- CNN
