WASHINGTON, March 31. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump expressed his irritation with statements from both sides of the Ukrainian conflict, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
"The president is working incredibly hard to get a peace deal done between Russia and Ukraine, and he has expressed his displeasure with comments that have been made by leaders of both sides of this conflict," she said. "He has expressed what he believes needs to take place in order to see this conflict come to an end. He continues to work very hard on it, and our teams continue to be engaged."
Trump told NBC on March 30 that he would impose "secondary tariffs" on Russian oil if Moscow doesn’t strike a peace deal on Ukraine. According to the television channel, the US president also said he was "very angry" about the comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin made about Vladimir Zelensky and officials in Kiev, adding that those remarks were "not going in the right location."
Additionally, Trump told reporters that Zelensky is looking to back out of a deal on rare earths.
"If he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems," the US president said.
The Russian president said in the Russian northern port of Murmansk on March 27 that external governance of countries is something that has been practiced before in international affairs and it could pave the way for legitimate talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict. As examples, he referred to the UN administration in East Timor, New Guinea and parts of former Yugoslavia. According to Putin, a transitional UN administration in Ukraine could be discussed with the US, European countries and Russia’s allies and other friendly nations.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the reports that Trump allegedly was angered by Putin’s words about Zelensky by saying that the stories were based on paraphrased remarks and lacked direct quotes to back them up.