Russia’s UN ambassador refutes Trump pledge to end Ukraine war in a day

Sarah Fortinsky
·2-min read

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s United Nations ambassador, on Monday refuted former President Trump’s frequent claim that he could end the war in Ukraine in a day if he is elected to another term in the White House.

“The Ukrainian crisis cannot be solved in one day,” Nebenzia said at a news conference when asked about Trump’s pledge to do so. “That’s objective.”

Trump has often touted his deal-making skills in suggesting he could negotiate an end to foreign crises, especially Russia’s war in Ukraine. He has not provided details on his plans, however.

“If it’s not solved, I will have it solved in 24 hours with Zelensky and with Putin,” Trump said last March in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“And there’s a very easy negotiation to take place. But I don’t want to tell you what it is because then I can’t use that negotiation; it’ll never work. But it’s a very easy negotiation to take place. I will have it solved within one day, a peace between them. Now that’s a year and a half. That’s a long time. I can’t imagine something not happening,” Trump added.

At a CNN town hall two months later, in May 2023, Trump made similar remarks.

“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours,” Trump said, adding that the resolution would come after he first met with Zelensky and Putin.

Nebenzia, in his response to the reporter on Monday, detailed some of the complexities of the negotiation process. He suggested there was an opportunity to end the fighting in April 2022, but he blamed Western allies for blocking the deal. He also scoffed at last month’s conference in Switzerland, where 80 countries said Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” must be the basis for a peace deal.

Putin offered a cease-fire and the start of negotiations in June, in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing from some of its own territory that Russia seized at the start of its invasion and abandoning plans to join NATO. Zelensky has said that giving up land is a non-starter.

A Trump spokesperson responded to Nebenzia’s remarks in a statement to The Hill, saying, “President Trump is the most effective statesman and negotiator in history, and he will solve this conflict when he is elected.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • The world must prepare for President Michelle Obama

    The 2024 US Presidential race intensifies. Speculation abounds over potential replacements for President Joe Biden amid increasing pressure from his party and the media to step aside after a jaw-dropping, catastrophic debate against Donald Trump last week. Among the names circulating, a game-changer is emerging: Michelle Obama. Could this be America’s worst nightmare?

  • Biden ‘seriously considering’ leaving election race

    Joe Biden has for the first time said that he is considering ending his presidential campaign, according to reports.

  • Orban urges Zelensky to accept Kremlin ceasefire offer

    Viktor Orban has made a surprise visit to Kyiv where he urged Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the Kremlin’s offer of a ceasefire.

  • Trump Caught on Video Claiming ‘Broken-Down’ Biden Has Quit: ‘It’s Kamala’

    Donald Trump delivered a brutal assessment of Joe Biden’s performance against him in last week’s presidential debate, calling the president a “broken-down pile of crap” teetering on the verge of “quitting the race” in a video provided by a source to The Daily Beast.“He just quit, you know—he’s quitting the race,” Trump says, sitting in a golf cart. “I got him out of the—and that means we have Kamala.”Later in the clip, he fawns over Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him “a fierce man, very t

  • 9 out of 10 voters say there are important differences between Biden and Trump. Here’s what they see as the biggest ones

    If there’s one thing that American voters overwhelmingly agree on, it’s that this year’s presidential election presents a stark choice. In the latest CNN poll by SSRS, 91% of registered voters say they see important differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, dwarfing even the 77% of voters who said last fall that there were significant divides between the Democratic and Republican parties. Even among the so-called “double haters” – those with unfavorable views of

  • Philippines says US mid-range missile system to be pulled out

    A US mid-range missile system deployed in the Philippines for annual joint military exercises -- to the annoyance of China -- will be pulled out of the country, a Philippine Army spokesman said Thursday.The US Army said in April it had deployed the Mid-Range Capability missile system which can fire the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile in the northern Philippines.

  • The US Air Force seems hell-bent on getting rid of its greatest ever fighter jet

    The US Air Force has been in an unseemly hurry to rid itself of its Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. Its argument: the 32 least-upgraded Block 20 versions of the supersonic, fifth-generation stealth fighter aren’t suitable for combat – and together cost nearly half a billion dollars a year to maintain.

  • Ivanka Trump breaks silence on father’s conviction in hush money case

    NEW YORK — Ivanka Trump broke her weekslong silence regarding her father’s recent hush money criminal conviction during a podcast appearance released Tuesday. The former White House staffer said the experience has been agonizing. “On a human level, it’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience, but ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” she said on “The Lex ...

  • Philippine military chief warns his forces will fight back if assaulted again in disputed sea

    Philippine forces will defend themselves with “the same level of force” if they come under assault again from China’s coast guard in the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese personnel armed with machetes and spears injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged two of their boats in a chaotic faceoff last month, the Philippine military chief said Thursday. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. asked China to pay 60 million pesos ($1 million) in damages for the two navy boats and return seven rifles which he said were seized by Chinese coast guard personnel during the June17 confrontation at Second Thomas Shoal.

  • Malaysia's Najib loses legal bid to serve sentence under house arrest

    KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -A Malaysian court dismissed jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak's legal bid to obtain a document that he said would allow him to serve his remaining prison sentence under house arrest. In a judicial review application filed on April 1, Najib said an "addendum order" issued by the former king had accompanied a pardons board's decision in February to halve his 12-year jail sentence for graft in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal. Najib had sought for the court to compel the government to reply to or confirm the existence of the royal order, which he said would entitle him to serve the remainder of his term under house arrest, and to execute the order if it existed.

  • Conservative Commentator Says Trump’s Post-Debate Move Is ‘Freaking A Lot Of People Out’

    Former Fox News pundit Jonah Goldberg had CNN’s Jake Tapper laughing with his response.

  • House Democrat is proposing a constitutional amendment to reverse Supreme Court's immunity decision

    A leading House Democrat is preparing a constitutional amendment in response to the Supreme Court's landmark immunity ruling, seeking to reverse the decision “and ensure that no president is above the law.” Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, sent a letter to colleagues informing them of his intent to file the resolution, which would kickstart what's traditionally a cumbersome amendment process. "This amendment will do what SCOTUS failed to do — prioritize our democracy,” Morelle said in a statement to AP.

  • Leaked polling memo ‘shook Democrats in their boots,’ says former Obama adviser

    Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said that a leaked polling memo “shook Democrats in their boots” in a Wednesday Substack post. The polling memo from Open Labs, leaked to Puck News, showed how President Biden’s support was sliding following his panic-inducing debate performance Thursday. The Open Labs memo noted the “largest single-week drop” in Biden’s…

  • Who could replace Joe Biden as Democratic nominee? Here are six possibilities

    After his catastrophic debate against Trump and reports that some Democrats are calling for Biden to step aside, here’s who could run against Trump instead

  • Russia missed probably its best opportunity to steamroll Ukraine, war analyst argues

    The war expert Mick Ryan said Russia had failed to act decisively in the Ukraine war, missing a chance to strike a decisive blow.

  • Russia's war-driven economy is so hot that the World Bank upgraded it to a 'high-income country'

    Russia's trade rebounded by nearly 7% last year, while activities in the financial sector and construction grew by 6.6% and 3.6% respectively.

  • A massive fire on a Russian warship was set by a saboteur fighting against his own country, Ukraine says

    The operative who set the fire was a sailor in the Russian fleet when he asked to covertly work for Ukraine, Ukrainian military intelligence said.

  • Biden has acted like he did in ‘horror show’ debate up to 20 times, claims Watergate reporter

    Joe Biden’s loss of control in his debate performance was not a one-off, sources have told one of America’s most respected investigative journalists.

  • Biden says he 'nearly fell asleep' during debate after world travel

    U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday acknowledged his performance during last Thursday's presidential debate wasn't his best, but blamed it on jet lag after two overseas trips earlier in June. Biden has faced mounting questions about his 2024 reelection bid after last week's shaky debate performance, with one House of Representatives fellow Democrat on Tuesday publicly calling on him to withdraw from the race. Speaking at a campaign event in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday evening, Biden admitted the debate against former President Donald Trump, his Republican rival, did not go well.

  • The Economist Burns Joe Biden With Brutal Cover Showing A Walker

    The magazine slammed the president’s debate performance, calling him “incapable.”