Trump says “hatred” between Russia and Ukraine is hindering a peace agreement

Trump, who was speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Florida, told world leaders gathered there that “the hatred between Putin and his counterpart is very great.”

“It’s so wonderful, you know, Ukraine, Russia, You’d think there would be a little bit of camaraderie, (but) there’s not. The hatred is so great. It is very difficult for them to get there. It’s very difficult to get there. “So we’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “But we’ve been close a lot of times and one or the other will back down.”

Trump added: “But we’re losing, you know, they’re losing, you know, it doesn’t affect us much because we have an ocean separating us. I’m doing this in service of Europe, and I’m doing this in service of life because they’re losing 25,000 lives.” “Think about that every month. 25,000. Last month, 31,000. On both sides, 31,000 people died, most of them soldiers.”

Ukraine’s Zelensky: Russia is trying to “play” with Trump and disrupt the peace talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are shown side-by-side as discussions continue over Ukraine’s future and a possible settlement to the war. (Julia Demarai Nickinson/AP; Christian Bruna/Getty)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky He told Fox News in late February that Russia was trying to “play the president of the United States” and disrupt US-brokered efforts to end the war.

Zelensky said that Ukraine was ready to freeze the conflict along its current lines, and proposed a ceasefire followed by negotiations. But he said he would not accept the Russian demand that Ukraine hand over territory that the Russian army has not been able to seize in four years of fighting.

Russia is losing 25,000 soldiers a month in Ukraine as the war continues, says NATO Secretary General

President Donald Trump attends the Shield of the Americas Summit on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in January that Russia was losing between 20,000 and 25,000 soldiers per month in its war against Ukraine, as the fighting continued for the fourth year.

Firefighters extinguish the fire in a multi-storey residential building after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Andrey Marenko/AP)

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Rutte told the Global European Forum for Renewing Europe in Brussels at the time that the staggering number of casualties reflected the intensity of Ukraine’s defence, but warned that Russia remained the most important threat to NATO in the long term.

Fox News’ Simon Owen, Greg Balcott and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

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