US President Donald Trump on June 5 compared Russia's war against Ukraine to children fighting in comments during a visit by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, telling reporters at the White House that "sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while."
Trump downplayed prospects for an immediate peace between the countries despite his diplomatic efforts to push the two sides to negotiate a cease-fire and eventually a peace deal.
The US president has become increasingly frustrated over the lack of progress toward either goal. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump vowed to end the worst war in Europe since 1945 soon after taking office.
It now appears he has come to a new conclusion, saying stopping the war is difficult because there is there is "a lot of animosity" between the two countries and a lot of hatred between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy, they hate each other and they're fighting in a park," Trump said. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."
Hours after Trump met Merz, Russian drones attacked Kyiv, triggering fires in residential buildings in different parts of the city, authorities said.
Trump said he still believes that "at some point" there will be peace between Russia and Ukraine as Merz encouraged the US president to pressure Putin.
The German chancellor stressed that Berlin and Washington need to work together to support Ukraine and put pressure on Russia.
"America is again in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war, so let's talk about what we can do jointly," Merz said in the Oval Office.
Merz said later in an interview with CNN that when Trump commented that the June 6 anniversary of D-Day wouldn't be a very good day for Germany, he told Trump he viewed the 1944 invasion launched by the United States and its allies as the liberation of Germany from the Nazis.
"I used this political and historical analogy just to point out that the Americans are again in a very strong position to end something which is again a terrible war on European soil, not with military actions but this time with pressure on Russia," Merz said on CNN.
He said during his visit to Washington he spoke with US senators about sanctions, noting that the European Union is debating another sanctions package -- the 18th since the war began in February 2022 -- and predicted it would pass.
"We will do [more sanctions] in Europe…. We are asking the American side to do the same in parallel," he said. "This is something we can do together."
Trump declined to commit to backing further sanctions on Russia but noted a sanctions bill prepared by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) is a "very tough" bill.
"When I see the moment where it's not going to stop…we'll be very, very, very tough," he said. "And it could be on both countries to be honest. You know, it takes two to tango."
