Trump Clarifies Ukraine Aid Not Discussed in Putin Call
By Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said aid to Ukraine was not discussed in his call on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin although the Kremlin said the Russian leader had called for an end to military assistance for Kyiv.
Trump made the comments in an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" show.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
Putin agreed on Tuesday to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal. Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement.
The Kremlin said after the Trump-Putin call that Putin also emphasized that any resolution of the conflict would require an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.
KEY QUOTES
"We didn't talk about aid, we didn't talk about aid at all," Trump said.
"We talked about a lot things but aid was never discussed."
CONTEXT
The United States supplies Ukraine with vital defensive and offensive capabilities.
Washington is Ukraine's single largest military donor, having delivered or allocated over $70 billion since January 2022 in weapons, ammunitions and other military assistance. Of that, just over $15 billion was for heavy weapons, data by the Kiel Institute shows.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward; Editing by Sandra Maler and Stephen Coates)
