Trump says it’s ‘more difficult’ to deal with Ukraine than Russia

CGTN Europe

President Trump has said he finds it more difficult to deal with Ukraine than Russia.   He’s calling on both countries to negotiate a peace deal.   CGTN’s Nick Harper has the latest

Transcript

00:00Paul Noah's comments suggesting that he's finding it much easier to get on with Russia

00:04than he is with Ukraine at this stage, seeming to side, therefore, more with Moscow than

00:09with Kiev.

00:10He said that the US is doing very well with Russia.

00:14He said it's easier dealing with Moscow.

00:17But I have to be honest, Friday we saw tremendous mixed messages coming out of the White House

00:21because those comments were made when he was speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.

00:26Just hours before that on social media, he suggested he was strongly considering large-scale

00:33sanctions and tariffs on Russia, that in response to that continued bombardment we've just been

00:39hearing about from Ross and Dasher.

00:42But then, in the Oval Office, he suggested that Russia's actions were perfectly acceptable.

00:48He seemed to defend them.

00:49He said anyone in that position would be doing that right now, striking Ukraine with that

00:55continued bombardment.

00:57But he did also say that he wants Russia to try and end the war.

01:01And he said in many ways his feelings are that Moscow is much more prepared to make

01:06that happen than Ukraine is.

01:08There is this continued pressure to get both sides around the negotiating table.

01:13And he said when that happens, he feels that President Vladimir Putin would be generous

01:18in peace talks.

01:19It's unclear exactly what he meant, but the suggestion being that President Putin would

01:23be much easier to work with, much more amenable than what he's seeing from the Ukrainians.

01:29And Nick, can you bring us up to date with this other development we've had about Ukraine

01:33losing access to some commercial satellite imagery that it needs to operate on the front

01:40line, for example?

01:41Yeah, this is a big change for Ukraine.

01:45It's going to make things much more difficult for the troops on the ground.

01:48We're told that this is just a temporary suspension.

01:51This is an agency that works within the Pentagon.

01:54It's the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

01:57They made the announcement that they are stopping Ukraine's access to this satellite imagery.

02:02They said that it was in accordance with the administration's directive on support to Ukraine.

02:08That's a big problem, though, for the soldiers in Ukraine, because they rely on this to give

02:13them an edge on the battlefield.

02:14They use that real-time satellite imagery to assess potential targets and then to see

02:20the damage carried out when they strike those targets.

02:24They also look at Russian troop positions and troop movements and monitoring those on

02:29an ongoing basis.

02:30And they also use it to determine routes that their own soldiers will take to assess whether

02:36the ground has been mined or whether it's been destroyed, really to work out the best

02:40route around those very difficult areas.

02:43We are told that this is temporary, but it's unclear when it would come back online.

02:47And, of course, that is on top of other actions that we've seen from Washington this week,

02:52including the complete freeze on shipments of arms to Ukraine and the ending of intelligence

02:58sharing, all really, it seems, aimed at trying to pressure Ukraine to try and get to the

03:03negotiating table.

03:04But all of those actions, all three during the course of this week, makes it much, much

03:08harder for them to continue the conflict with Russia.

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