In a new publication of The New York Times, details appeared about the first meeting of former US President Donald Trump with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which took place on July 7, 2017 in Hamburg. According to the publication, during this dialogue, Trump asked Putin for advice on military aid to Ukraine.
Trump told Putin he was considering supplying weapons to Ukraine and asked, "What do you think?" Putin responded by saying that this would be a mistake, and no matter how much help the U.S. gives to the Ukrainians, "they will ask for more." The American president did not object, the NYT reported, citing three officials.
According to the newspaper, at the meeting, Putin spoke disparagingly of Ukraine and "arranged a master class in shaping Trump's thinking." After the talks, Tillerson called on US administration officials to "work to change the president's opinion about Ukraine."
According to the interlocutors of the publication, the presidents also discussed Ukraine during their first telephone conversation on January 28, 2017. Trump was the first to raise the issue, asking Putin for his opinion. The Russian president started talking about corruption in this country, to which Trump reacted cautiously - he did not agree with his interlocutor, but he did not defend Ukraine either. At the same time, he admitted that the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv prevents him from improving US relations with Russia.
On the same day, Trump heard another point of view regarding Ukraine - former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who introduced him to the "history of Russian-Ukrainian relations." Merkel talked about the help to Kyiv from Europe and the US during the time of President Barack Obama and said that the support should be continued, and the Russian policy towards Ukraine should be softened in order to avoid "further destabilization in Eastern Europe." "Thank you very much and goodbye," Trump replied.
