US President Donald Trump has made it clear that he does not intend to abduct Russian President, Vladimir Putin, dismissing the notion as “unnecessary” when aired by some reporters.
Trump was interacting with the press in the White House a week after US’ special Delta Force raided Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the country’s largest military base during the early hours of last Saturday.
Following a previous appeal by Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to Trump to abduct Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, reporters asked the US President on Friday if he would kidnap Putin on Zelenskyy’s request.
“Sounds like he wants you to go and capture Vladimir Putin. Would you ever order a mission to go and capture Vladimir Putin?” a reporter quipped, to which Trump said, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I’ve always had a great relationship with him.”
He added, however, that he was “very disappointed” that his efforts to initiate a peace offering to both Russia and Ukraine to end the war had been unsuccessful.
Trump’s order of assault on Venezuela has mostly invited criticism from world leaders, with Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, describing it as “banditry” that pushed the world toward “chaos and lawlessness”.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, praised the US raid against Maduro, saying: “If you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next.”
But, fighting between Russia and Ukraine has worsened over the past few days, especially after Russian officials accused Kyiv of targetting Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region with nearly 100 drones.
Although Ukraine denied any involvement in the attack, Russian military officials handed over the debris of several drones with activated coordinates of Putin’s official residence as evidence.
