U.S. President Donald Trump believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will "keep his word" and will not attack again following a peace agreement with Ukraine.
This statement was made at the White House during discussions with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as reported by Reuters and AFP.
At the same time, when asked about trusting Putin, Trump responded: "Trust, but verify."
"I think we need to verify because you never know what will happen. You said they will deceive at some point and that they are the worst people in the world. But I know others who guarantee they are 100% honest, yet they deceive. So you never know what you will get," noted the American president.
Trump also commented on Ukraine's desire to join NATO as a result of the peace agreement, stating that "this will not happen." However, he assured that the U.S. will attempt to return "as much land as possible" to Ukraine.
Furthermore, Trump mentioned that ensuring security in Ukraine is "easy," but reaching an agreement is "difficult."
"I think we have made significant progress on the agreement, but we have not finalized it yet. So I do not want to talk about peacekeepers until we reach an agreement," he explained.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the administration of President Donald Trump informed European officials that they aim to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine by Easter, which falls on April 20 this year.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that there will be no ceasefire without security guarantees for Ukraine.