‘Don’t want that aggression,’ Donald Trump says could cancel Putin meet due to Ukraine attack
Trump told The Washington Post that he was waiting for a report from national security advisors on Sunday’s incident in which Russian naval forces seized three Ukrainian vessels.
US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that he could cancel a planned summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin due to Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships last weekend.
Trump told The Washington Post that he was waiting for a report from national security advisors on Sunday’s incident in which Russian naval forces seized three Ukrainian vessels.
“That will be very determinative,” Trump said. “Maybe I won’t have the meeting. Maybe I won’t even have the meeting. I don’t like that aggression. I don’t want that aggression at all”
The two leaders were due to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week and discuss security, arms control, and issues in Ukraine and the Middle East after the meet convenes on Friday, national security adviser John Bolton told reporters.
The US has also urged European states to do more to support Ukraine.
Read: Russia seizes Ukrainian ships near annexed Crimea after firing on them, wounding several
Russian coastguard ships opened fire on Sunday as two Ukrainian gunboats and a tug sailed through the Kerch Strait off the coast of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Twenty-four Ukrainians were detained and at least three were wounded in the incident.
Ukraine described it as an “act of aggression” but Russia said the ships had illegally entered its waters.
A Crimean court later ordered that 12 of the Ukrainians be detained for 60 days.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was a threat of “full-scale war” with Russia, a day after Kiev imposed martial law for a 30-day period from November 26 in 10 border regions, the BBC reported.
“The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has grown three times,” he said.
Five of the 10 regions border Russia while two are adjacent to Moldova’s breakaway Trans-Dniester region, where Russian troops are stationed. The other three regions border the Black Sea or Sea of Azov close to Crimea.
