WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump compared the war between Russia and Ukraine to two kids fighting in a park, where he might have to let them brawl for a while rather than break them up immediately because of their intense hatred.
Trump told Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz on June 5 that he made that analogy in a lengthy call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin a day earlier, after Putin said he needed to retaliate for drone strikes against his air force.
“Sometimes you see young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other and they’re fighting in a park,” Trump said. “You try to pull them apart and they don’t want to be pulled apart.”
“Sometimes you have to let them fight for a while,” Trump added.
Trump and Merz were meeting to discuss trade and how to end the three-and-a-half-year war. Merz said a day before the anniversary of D-day in World War II that Germany owes a tremendous debt to America for liberating his country and Europe from the Nazis, and needs to again help end a war.
“We all are looking for measures and instruments to bring this terrible war to an end,” Merz said. “I told the president before we came in that he is the key person in the world who can really do that now by putting pressure on Russia.”
Trump said he would be very tough and could impose sanctions on both countries if the fighting continues unabated. He didn’t disclose a deadline but said he had it in his head.
Ukraine is the apple of Putin’s eye, Trump said, and the Russian would like to control the entire country. After a Ukrainian drone strike against Russian aircraft, Trump said Putin intends to hit back.
“He got hit. He’s been doing hitting, so I understand it. But he got hit hard,” Trump said. “I don’t think he’s playing games. I’ve always said he wanted the whole thing. I thought he wanted everything having to do with Ukraine.”
Trump said he sensed great hatred between Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making peace talks more complicated.
“There’s a lot of bad blood,” Trump said. “There is a great hatred between those two men but between the warring parties.”
Besides children fighting in a park, Trump compared it to hockey players.
“The referees let them go for a couple of seconds,” Trump said. “Let them go for a little while before you pull them apart.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says Russia, Ukraine may fight more to exhaust their hatred
