The Kremlin on Friday responded to President Trump's prior day's comments which likened the Ukraine war to a schoolyard fight.
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy, they hate each other and they're fighting in a park," Trump said on Thursday. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart," he added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that while the US leader has a right to his own opinion, it remains that for Russia this conflict is an existential matter of ensuring its own security and stability and the nation's future.
"Here, of course, the U.S. president may have his own point of view on what is happening," Peskov said. "For us, this is an existential issue, it is a matter of our national interests, a question of our security, the future of us and our children, the future of our country," he added in remarks translated from Russian.
President Trump was trying to be optimistic in his Thursday meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. "We'd like to see it end, and maybe it'll end," Trump had told Merz of the Ukraine war.
"But we get some news, there'll be some fighting. Something happened a couple of days ago," he noted of the recent drone attack escalations and that he's "unhappy about it."
"But I think eventually we're going to be successful in stopping the bloodshed," the US president then emphasized.
Watch Trump given his latest thoughts on the crisis:
Trump revealed his Ukraine strategy.
— Karl Mehta (@karlmehta) June 6, 2025
He had a 2 hour 15 minute call with Putin just before Merz arrived.
His approach? Let them "fight like children in a park" before pulling them apart.
But there's a hidden deadline that changes everything... pic.twitter.com/Y0Q8yXy4AL
Trump has continued to hold off on yet another round of anti-Russia sanctions, while seeking to keep peace negotiations open:
U.S. President Donald Trump has asked the Senate to delay voting on a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill, Republican Senator Roger Wicker said on June 4.
...The bill, introduced on April 1 by Senators Lindsey Graham (R) and Richard Blumenthal (D), seeks to impose a 500% tariff on imports from countries that continue purchasing Russian oil and raw materials.
"I know that he (Trump) asked the leader (Senate Majority Leader John Thune) not to bring the bill to a vote this week," Sen. Wicker had said.
