President Trump: Russia-Ukraine conflict is 'under control'

Trump stressed that his “good” relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were key to negotiating an end to the war, in an interview with Outkick, a website that combines sports commentary and conservative political views and is owned by Fox Corp.

“It would be great to stop it. I will tell you this, nobody else can do it. Nobody. Nothing,” Trump said in an interview aboard Air Force One on March 22.

President Trump said he knows his Russian counterpart Putin “very well.” Trump stressed that during his tenure as US President, President Putin did not take any military action against countries in the region. However, under other former US Presidents such as Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, things were different.

“I don't think there's anybody in the world that can stop him other than me, and I think, I hope I'll be able to do that,” Mr. Trump declared.

Previously, Mr. Trump had phone calls that were considered effective with his Russian counterpart Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky. Accordingly, on March 18, President Trump had a phone call lasting about 2 hours with Mr. Putin.

Immediately after the phone call ended, the Kremlin issued a statement on the results of the phone call, which was said to have contained many positive agreements. After affirming the fundamental commitment to a peaceful solution to the conflict, President Putin declared his readiness to cooperate with the United States to thoroughly explore possible ways to achieve a comprehensive, sustainable and long-term solution.

Of course, Moscow must take into account the need to eliminate the root causes of the crisis and ensure Russia's legitimate interests in the security sphere.

President Putin, although not fully agreeing with the US-backed ceasefire, agreed to the 30-day ceasefire initiative on energy infrastructure and immediately ordered the military to implement it.

The Russian side also outlined a number of important details surrounding the future ceasefire, emphasizing the need to stop the mobilization and rearmament of the Ukrainian army. The Russian president stressed that the key condition to prevent the escalation of the conflict must be the complete cessation of foreign military support and intelligence provision to Kiev.

According to the Kremlin statement, during the phone call, President Putin and President Trump also touched on many other issues on the international agenda, including the situation in the Middle East and the Red Sea region. The two sides agreed to make joint efforts to stabilize the situation in the crisis zone and establish cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and global security issues.

On the US side, in an announcement on the social network Truth Social, President Trump said that in a 90-minute phone call on March 18, he and his Russian counterpart Putin agreed to "work quickly to achieve a complete ceasefire and ultimately end the conflict" between Russia and Ukraine.

Regarding Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian state news agency (Ukrinform) on March 19, President Trump said he had completed a “very good” phone call with President Zelensky, in which the two sides discussed issues raised in the call between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on March 18. The above content was also posted by Trump on the social network Truth Social on the same day.

The US leader added that the discussions were aimed at “adjusting the demands and needs of both Russia and Ukraine” and that “we are moving in the right direction”.

As for the Ukrainian President, according to The Kyiv Independent newspaper reported on the evening of March 19, Mr. Zelensky said he had agreed to stop attacking Russia's energy infrastructure in a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump that took place the same day.

“One of the first steps to a complete end to the war could be to stop attacks on energy infrastructure and other civilian facilities. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to do it,” Zelensky wrote on social media after an hour-long call with Trump.