Listen to this article

The U.S President Donald Trump has suggested that he may cancel a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit. He issued a statement in response to Russia’s seizure of 3 Ukrainian naval ships. The U.S president said that he will make a decision on the sit-down after receiving a detailed report on the situation from his national security team. He informed The Washington Post, “Maybe I won’t even have the meeting. I don’t like that aggression. I don’t want that aggression at all”. The comments of Trump point to the powerful criticism of the Kremlin since Russian border forces shot at and seized the Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on Sunday.

Trump had previously implied both countries were to blame for tensions around the Crimean peninsula. He said, “We do not like what’s happening either way”. The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the United States had pledged to do what we need to do to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, including military assistance”. Russian officials have vowed to prosecute the vessels’ crews for allegedly violating the border and said that they don’t consider the seamen prisoners of war.

On Wednesday, Putin blamed Ukraine of provocation. He also claimed Poroshenko that he needed to inflame tensions with Russia to boost his waning support ahead of elections during next year. He said, “I hope I can talk to Trump in Argentina. I hope we can discuss trade barriers. Trump, in general, has a positive attitude”. On Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the meeting between Putin and Trump was still on. He informed reporters that Russia was aware of the latest remarks from the U.S president but hadn’t received any other information from our U.S counterparts. The White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders mentioned Trump’s trip as an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on free, fair and exchanged trade.