The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the president of the United States, agreed this Friday, in a meeting at the White House, to try to “reduce tensions” with Russia.
“The president is right (…) and we have to stop where we are,” declared the Ukrainian. “We hope we can finish this without thinking about tomahawks,” said the American.
Through his social network, Truth Social, Trump stated after the meeting that avoiding tensions was key and stressed that he will soon have direct contact with the leader of Moscow, Vladimir Putin, in Budapest.
This same week, from the Secretary of Defense of the United States, came the most critical statement towards Russia in recent times, something that has attracted attention in the Finnish press.
Pete Hegseth warned the Kremlin on Wednesday of possible consequences if its military actions in Ukraine continue. “If there is no path to peace in the short term, then the United States, together with its allies, will take the necessary steps to impose a cost on Russia for its continued aggression,” he stated, as reported.
“The War Department is prepared to play its role, in a way that only the United States can,” he stressed. “The war must end. As we saw him do in Gaza and the Middle East, Trump knows how to forge peace, create opportunities in situations and scenarios in which peace seems distant. Only he has the capacity for that,” Hegseth stressed.
As recalled in the aforementioned newspaper, Hegseth has previously suspended shipments of American weapons to Ukraine without Trump’s prior knowledge.
“More recently, Hegseth decided to suspend arms shipments to Ukraine, such as ammunition for the country’s critical air defense systems,” they add.
According to EFE, Hegseth also referred to the NATO initiative of the Ukraine Priority Needs List (PURL), with which allies purchase American military material to send to kyiv.
He detailed that they have committed “more than $2 billion in security assistance through PURL since August.”
