Maybe better to let Ukraine, Russia ‘fight for a while’, Trump tells Germany’s Merz
US president says he shared his comparison of the conflict to a fight between young children in his call with Putin
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before pulling them apart and pursuing peace, even as Germany’s new chancellor appealed to him as the “key person in the world” who could halt the bloodshed by pressuring Vladimir Putin.
In an Oval Office meeting with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the US president likened the war in Ukraine – which Russia invaded in February 2022 – to a fight between two children who hate each other.
Trump said that with children, “sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart”, adding that he relayed the analogy to Putin in a call this week.
“I said, ‘President, maybe you’re going to have to keep fighting and suffering a lot,’ because both sides are suffering before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart,” Trump said.
“You see in hockey, you see it in sports. The referees let them go for a couple of seconds, let them go for a little while before you pull them apart.”
The comments were a remarkable detour from Trump’s often-stated appeals to stop the violence in Ukraine – and he again denounced the bloodshed on Thursday even as he floated the possibility that the two countries should continue the war for a time.
