Asked about suggestions that Russia wanted elections in Ukraine as part of a peace deal, the US president replied: "I hate to say it, but he's down to a 4% approval… when they want a seat at the table, wouldn't the people of Ukraine say it's been a long time since we had an election?
In comments after an extraordinary meeting between senior American and Russian officials on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, the US president said of Ukraine: "They've had a seat [at the table] for three years and a long time before that.
While speaking from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Mr Trump also said he would not oppose seeing European peacekeeping troops stationed in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
At Tuesday morning's talks, US and Russian officials agreed to restore embassy staffing and establish a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine in another sign of the significant American change in diplomatic relations with Moscow.
"We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he's down to 4% approval rating.".
