Donald Trump mocked for letting Putin ‘play him like a fool’

5Donald Trump mocked for letting Putin ‘play him like a fool’ (Image: Getty)Donald Trump has been criticised for letting Vladimir Putin "play him like a fool". The statement comes from a US senator who urged the incoming Congress to continue providing the support to Ukraine. In a speech, outgoing Dick Durbin urged Washington to maintain its support for Ukraine, stressing the need to replenish the country's air defence systems and ensure previously committed financial assistance is delivered.

He also lashed out at the US President, accusing him of seeking to accommodate Vladimir Putin and pressuring Ukraine into negotiating a settlement on terms favourable to Russia.

Mr Durblin said: "The president has rolled out the red carpet for Putin on American soil, he held endless phone calls that led to nowhere.

"Trump publicly scolded Ukraine for fighting for its life and its existence and most recently…eased Russian oil sanctions.

"Attempts to pacify Putin are both fantasy and folly by an American president who seems forever enamoured by this autocratic Russian leader, who is endlessly playing Trump for a fool."

It comes as the US envoys are due to hold separate meetings with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday as efforts continue to capitalise on potential breakthroughs emerging from two days of negotiations in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to travel first to Moscow for talks with the Russian president before heading to Dublin, where Zelensky will be attending a series of European meetings.

The pair are expected to brief the Ukrainian leader on the latest developments from the discussions.

The talks in Abu Dhabi resulted in an agreement on what Kushner described as the largest prisoner swap of the conflict so far, although neither side disclosed how many detainees would be involved.

However, the negotiations, the first since diplomatic efforts were interrupted in February by the US military campaign in Iran, also exposed significant disagreements over the extent of Europe's involvement in any future peace process.

Mr Kushner said the meeting with Putin would "go over what was discussed today and try to make more progress on some of the issues that we discussed because we see some openings and some opportunities". With Zelensky, the pair will "further explore some of the ideas that we came up with here today".

Mr Umerov said that there was "still a lot of difficult work ahead, but there are opportunities to continue the negotiation process".

Russia's delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky told reporters the "discussion will certainly continue". But he questioned including Europe in the talks.

He said: "We don't really understand what there is to talk about with them. We have not received a single peace initiative, not one concrete proposal from the European countries."