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Donald Trump said the war in Ukraine has proven more difficult than he expected, admitting he once believed it would be the easiest conflict to resolve.
Speaking at a peace council meeting in Washington, the U.S. president remarked that his administration had already ended eight wars and suggested a ninth might still lie ahead. He acknowledged that this particular war turned out to be more complicated than anticipated, noting that in warfare it is impossible to predict what will be easy and what will not.
Trump’s comments come as U.S. efforts to accelerate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine risk unintentionally creating conditions for renewed escalation. Senator Lindsey Graham argues Washington should significantly increase pressure on Moscow, saying one effective step could be supplying Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump also expressed the view that the United Nations could ultimately assume a leading role in resolving global conflicts.
Meanwhile, negotiations continued in Geneva, Switzerland, where delegations from the United States, Ukraine, and Russia held a third round of talks on February 17–18 aimed at ending the war. The results were mixed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said political discussions were extremely difficult, though all sides showed a constructive approach on military issues. Despite cautious optimism on security matters, Axios reported that the political track of negotiations had effectively stalled, even as U.S. officials described the meeting as yielding “significant progress.”
