Trump: Putin is 'bombing the hell' out of Ukraine — and he wants 'peace'

President Donald Trump on Friday delivered a seemingly contradictory message about the state of the war with Ukraine.

Shortly after Trump said he'd consider sanctioning Russia given that it is launching massive bombing campaigns in Ukraine, a reporter in the Oval Office asked him if he still believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to make "peace" with the country he invaded more than three years ago.

"I believe him," Trump said of Putin. "I believe him. I think we're doing very well with Russia. But right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine and... I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don't have the cards. They don't have the cards."

Trump then emphasized that "Ukraine has to get on the ball and get the job done."

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A reporter then asked Trump if he believed that Putin was taking advantage of the fact that Trump ordered military aid to Ukraine halted in the last week.

"No, I actually think [Putin's] doing what anybody else would do," Trump replied. "I think he wants to get it stopped and settled. And I think he's hitting [Zelensky] harder than he's been hitting him. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended."

Trump one week ago publicly scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an Oval Office meeting in which he also expressed sympathy for Putin despite the fact that Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression against a neighboring country.

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