Trump welcomes Zelenski before the White House conversations

US President Donald Trump has said he has a “great respect” to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski on the eve of their conversations in the White House.

Asked by the BBC whether he would apologize for recently called him a “dictator”, he said he could not believe he said it. He also called Zelenski “very bold.”

Trump spoke after conversations with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Kiir Starmer to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

He predicts a “very good meeting” with Zelenski on Friday, saying that the efforts to achieve peace “move quite quickly”.

This week, meetings come after Trump’s administration shocked its Western partners by holding the first high -level US negotiations with Moscow, as Russia invaded Ukraine a little over three years ago.

The new President of America seemed to be accused of Zelenski for the war and encouraged him for not beginning peace talks earlier.

“You’ve been there for three years,” he said last Tuesday. “You had to finish it … You never had to start it. You could make a deal.”

But this Thursday, speaking, after meeting Sir Keyer, Trump told reporters asking about his upcoming negotiations with Zelenski: “I think we will have a very good meeting tomorrow morning. We will get along really well.”

Asked by Chris Mason from the BBC, if he still thinks Zeozerski was a “dictator”, he replied, “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said it.”

Zelenski will hope to win some security guarantees for his country, which will be the basis of any peace transaction that can be agreed.

Asked on Thursday, Trump only said he was “open to many things”, but he wants to make Russia and Ukraine agree a deal before deciding what measures can be introduced to implement it.

On Friday, Zelenski is expected to sign a deal that will give the US access to the resources of Ukraine’s minerals.

Trump suggested that the presence of American yield problems in Ukraine would act as a deterrent against future Russian attacks on Ukraine.

“This is a rear stop, you can say,” he said on Thursday. “I don’t think anyone will play around if we are there with many workers and connect with rare lands and other things we need for our country.”

The British Prime Minister had said earlier that the United Kingdom was ready to send troops to Ukraine after the war as part of peacekeeping forces, but only if the United States, a leading NATO member, provided a “rear”.

Asked if the US would help the British peacekeepers if they were attacked by Russia, Trump said, “The British have incredible soldiers, incredible military and can take care of themselves. But if they need help, I will always be with the British, right?”

Article 5 of NATO claims that NATO members will defend themselves as attacked.

Praising “Trump’s personal commitment to bring peace” to Ukraine, Sir Keyer said the UK was “ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal.”

“We are now focused on transferring a lasting end to the barbaric war to Ukraine,” he said.

But, he added, it should not be a peace transaction that rewards the aggressor or which gives encouragement to regimes like Iran. “

Asked if Vladimir Putin was reliable, the United Kingdom Prime Minister said his views on the Russian president were well known.

Asked why he seemed to trust Putin and Sir Keyer, he didn’t do it, Trump said, “I know many people who would say that there is no chance that they will ever mislead you and they are the oldest people in the world.

“I know others who would guarantee that they will mislead you and know what they are 100% honorary, so you never know what you get.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaya Kalas, who was to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, before canceling the negotiations “due to planning problems,” told BBC News that Putin and Russia “do not want to have peace”.

“In order for any peace agreement to function, it needs Europeans as well as Ukrainians on board,” she added.

Stopping in the Irish Republic on Thursday on the road to the United States, Zelenski met with Taoisch (Irish Prime Minister) Michel Martin at Shannon Airport.

“We discussed the steps to end the war with a guaranteed peace for Ukraine and all over Europe,” he said later.

Following the overthrow of the pro -Russian president of Ukraine in 2014, Moscow annexed the Crimean Black Sea Peninsula and supported the pro -Russian separatists in bloody battles in Eastern Ukraine.

The conflict erupted in a comprehensive war when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, were killed or injured, and millions of Ukrainian civilians escaped as refugees.

In addition to Crimea, Russia now occupies parts of four other regions – Donetsk, Lukhansk, Processing and Herson.

The Kremlin warned on Thursday that Russia would not make territorial discounts in Ukraine as part of the peace deal.

“All territories that have become objects of the Russian Federation … are an integral part of our country, Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is an absolutely indisputable fact and a non-existent fact.”

Separately Russian and US officials met in the Turkish city of Istanbul for Calls to restore diplomatic tiesS

The two nuclear superpowers kicked out the Embassy’s employees to each other when Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden was in the White House.