Diyar Guldogan
21 February 2025•Update: 21 February 2025
WASHINGTON
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that there is "no appetite" for another funding bill for Ukraine.
"There's no appetite for that," Johnson told Newsmax during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC when asked whether he sees another funding bill for the war in Ukraine.
"We have to bring it (the war) to an end. And I can tell you that our European allies understand the necessity as well," he added.
His remarks came a day after President Donald Trump called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator" and warned that he "better move fast" to secure peace with Russia or risk losing his country.
Tension has risen after Trump and Zelenskyy traded rebukes in recent days following a meeting between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia to start working together toward ending the war in Ukraine.
While Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a Russian "space of disinformation," Trump called Zelenskyy a "modestly successful comedian" and blamed him for starting the war with Russia in February 2022.
Johnson said Trump is trying to bring about an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which will serve America's interests.
"But when you start a mediation and you start an arbitration between two parties, you don’t bring them into the room for that first meeting. You do it separately.
"So I think Zelenskyy complaining that he wasn’t invited to the first meeting in Saudi Arabia with Russia is misplaced. I mean, what Trump’s trying to do is do a level set, put the conditions in place for that real negotiation to happen," he added.
Trump said Wednesday that Zelenskyy was "very upset" that he wasn't invited to talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia.
