Trump says ‘easier’ to work with Russia than Ukraine on peace talks

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he found it “easier” to deal with Russia than with Ukraine in efforts to end the war in the pro-Western country – and that he trusts Vladimir Putin.

“I believe him,” he said in a televised press conference at the White House.

“I’m finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards,” he said. “It may be easier dealing with Russia.”

Trump has pushed Ukraine hard, as it struggles to fend off Russian invasion after three years of war, and has ordered a pause in US military and intelligence aid to Kyiv to apply more pressure.

Despite threatening new sanctions on Russia earlier on Friday, Trump said he understood why Putin’s forces had inflicted a massive bombing campaign across Ukraine overnight.

“I actually think he’s doing what anybody in that position would be doing that right now,” Trump said.