US President Donald Trump has not said whether he trusts Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, but suggested that Putin "would like to stop the war". Trump has added that if he had not won the election, Putin would have taken "over all of Ukraine".

ABC News reiterated a post by Trump in which he had criticised Putin for strikes on peaceful Ukrainian cities and suggested that Putin does not want to end the war, but was simply "tapping" him along.

In an interview with journalist Terry Moran, Trump stated: "I would say that he [Putin] would like to stop the war".

Trump avoided answering the question of whether he trusts Putin: "I don`t trust you. I don`t trust a lot of people, but I do think this - I think that he, let’s say he respects me, and I believe because of me, he’s not going to take over the whole [of Ukraine]. If it weren’t for me, I think he`d want to take over the whole country, personally. I think if I didn`t win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine. And because of me, I do believe that he’s willing to stop the fighting".