INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin will have to "get
together" to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv.Trump's comments marked a shift from criticizing Zelensky as a "dictator" after the
officials."President Putin and President Zelensky are going to have to get together
Because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.Trump added Kyiv would
"hopefully in the next fairly short period of time" sign a deal handing Washington preferential access to Ukraine's mineral
deposits."They're very brave, in every way you can imagine
But we are spending our treasure on some country that's very, very far away," Trump said of Ukraine.Trump wants Ukraine to give United
States companies access to its vast natural resources as compensation for the tens of billions of dollars of aid delivered under his
predecessor Joe Biden.In return, Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from the United States for signing away the precious rights.Zelensky
major sticking point in the increasingly fraught relations between Washington and Kyiv.In a public spat, Trump this week called Zelensky a
"dictator without elections" and falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war.Earlier Friday, Trump described Ukraine as at a disadvantage in
not such good talks with Ukraine
They don't have any cards," Trump said at the White House.His call for Zelensky and Putin to work together came despite him saying in a Fox
News interview that it was not "very important" for Zelensky to be involved in United States -Russia talks.Trump again declined to blame
Russia for the February 2022 invasion, saying that Putin "attacked but they shouldn't have let him attack."The United States president
to make a deal, because if he wanted, he'd get the whole country," Trump said.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister
ground, both sides in the war are trying to improve their position on the battlefield amid Trump's push for a ceasefire.Russia's army on
Friday said it had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine.With Europe shaken by the new United States stance on the conflict,
Ukraine got renewed support from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz."We won't leave Ukraine alone and decide things over their heads," he said
Friday at his last major campaign event before weekend elections.After speaking to Scholz and other regional leaders, Zelensky said in his
televised evening address that "Europe must and can do much more to ensure that peace is actually achieved" in Ukraine.On the diplomatic
front, the United States proposed Friday a resolution at the United Nations that omitted any mention of Kyiv's territory occupied by
Russia.Washington's text, seen by AFP, calls for a "swift end to the conflict" without mentioning Kyiv's territorial integrity, and was
welcomed by Moscow's ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia as "a good move."
