Trump admits Ukraine crisis settlement proving harder than he thought

MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax) - U.S. President Donald Trump has said that settling the Ukrainian crisis is proving more difficult than he expected, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in resolving this problem.

"Because it's more difficult than people would have any idea," Trump said at a press conference after the NATO summit on Wednesday.

Putin "would like to get out of this thing, it's a mess for him," Trump said.

"He called me [...], you know, he is close to Iran, and he'd like to help us get a settlement. I said, 'No, no, you help me get a settlement with you, with Russia.' And I think we're going to be doing that," he said.

Trump also said that he plans to have a phone call with Putin, but did not say when.

Trump also said he is not ready to say at this point whether he would allocate funds for further aid to Ukraine this year.

"We'll see what happens," he said in reply to a corresponding question from a journalist at the press conference in The Hague.

According to The Daily Telegraph, which saw the NATO summit statement before its official publication, the statement did not criticize Russia's actions towards Ukraine, but said the alliance's member states "reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours."

UKRAINE AGENDA AT NATO SUMMIT

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a press conference in The Hague after the alliance's summit that "NATO has already pledged 35 billion euros so far this year, with more to follow."

When asked about the total amount of financial aid for Ukraine by the end of this year, Rutte said that he cannot say at this point how large this total volume is going to be, but based on the results of the first six months of the year, it is clear that the NATO countries' relevant commitments have already exceeded "the trajectory of last year", which ended "at over 50 billion [euros] pledged."

"I am positive about that, optimistic, but I'm not going to make a concrete prediction, but, I mean, it can be safely assumed that the end result will be positive," he said.

"We stand with Ukraine in its pursuit of peace and will support it on its irreversible path to NATO membership," Rutte said.

However, according to media reports, the summit communique contains no mention of Ukraine's NATO membership.

When speaking about the United States' commitment to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, Rutte called on politicians in the West not to doubt that. Rutte said that he wants to ask certain politicians in Europe and Canada, not journalists, because they are free to ask any questions, to stop worrying, because the U.S. if fully committed to Article 5.

PRESSURE ON MOSCOW

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said that he sees Russia as an immediate and long-term threat to the alliance's member states.

"It's a long-term threat and also an immediate threat," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with the Politico media outlet on the sidelines of the NATO summit that new sanctions against Russia would close the door for dialogue with Moscow.

"If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire," Rubio said.

U.S. President Donald Trump "knows the right time and place" for economic measures against Russia, Rubio said.

German political analyst Alexander Rahr, for his part, said that Trump has got the majority of his European allies in NATO to show restraint toward Moscow.

The NATO summit focused on Trump, Rahr told Interfax. Without the U.S., the Europeans cannot defend themselves, cannot create their own defense industry, and cannot fully supply Kiev with military aid, he said. Trump wants peace in Ukraine, which is why Europeans are meeting him halfway and refrain from provoking Russia by strong statements and acts, he said.

The NATO leadership represented by Rutte consistently calls on the alliance's European members to follow Trump's track, Rahr said. Secretary General Rutte has made all leaders of NATO's European member states do what Trump says, cover expenses from Europe's pocket and buy American weapons, he said.