Trump calls Zelenskyy and Putin 'kids,' doubts bilateral Ukraine-Russia meeting
Photo: US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump, in an interview with The Daily Caller, expressed uncertainty about the prospects of a meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. He said, however, that trilateral talks involving the United States are expected to take place.
"A trilateral would happen. A bilateral, I don't know about, but a trilateral will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren't ready for it," Trump said.
He again compared Zelenskyy and Putin to "children on a playground."
"You have a child, and there's another child in the lot, in the playground, and they hate each other, and they start swinging, swinging, and swinging, and you want them to stop, and they keep going. After a little while, they're very happy to stop," he added.
Trump has used a similar analogy before. In July 2025, he likened Russia's war against Ukraine to a fight between children in a park.
Zelenskyy responded, saying that Putin is not a child on a playground, but a "murderer who came to this park to kill the kids."
Zelenskyy-Putin meeting
On August 18, President Trump said that after speaking with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, he had begun preparing for a meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Putin had expressed willingness to attend the meeting. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, stressed that such talks need to be prepared very carefully.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has maintained that Russia is the main obstacle to holding the meeting.
