WATCH: Ukraine, Russia should 'fight for a while' before 'pulling them apart,' Trump says - PBS NewsHour

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During a meeting with Germany’s chancellor in the Oval Office on Thursday, Donald Trump suggested Ukraine and Russia should “fight for a while” before getting peace talks back on track.

Trump noted an analogy he used during his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to describe Ukraine and Russia: “Sometimes, you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park. And you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes, you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

Trump called the ongoing war, which started after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a “bloodbath” and said “there's a great hatred between” Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s leader has accepted a ceasefire proposal offered by the U.S. and said he would meet with Putin to attempt to break a stalemate in negotiations between the two warring countries. Putin has not indicated that he will meet with Zelenskyy.

For his part, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “we are looking for more pressure on Russia” to end the war in Ukraine. - Aired on 06/05/2025.