President Trump said Friday that Russia’s military clash with Ukraine is the “sole reason” he canceled a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, rejecting Moscow’s argument that he caved to political fallout from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
“We look forward to meeting with President Putin, but on the basis of what took place with respect to the ships and the sailors, that was the sole reason,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the G-20 summit in Argentina. “We don’t like what happened. We’re not happy about it — nobody is. Hopefully they’ll be able to settle it out soon.”
Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday that Mr. Trump was avoiding a meeting with the Russian leader due to developments in the special counsel’s investigation. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told a federal judge Thursday that he lied to Congress about the extent of the Trump Organization’s efforts to build a high-rise in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Russian navy ships fired on Ukrainian vessels this week and seized Ukrainian 24 sailors at a vital sea route in Crimea, which Russian forces illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
A Kremlin spokesman said Mr. Putin still planned to hold a “brief impromptu meeting” with Mr. Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. But a White House official fired back, “There is no scheduled pull aside.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Mueller probe is hampering U.S. relations with Russia, but reiterated that it wasn’t the reason for canceling the Trump-Putin meeting.
“The reason for our canceled meeting is Ukraine. Hopefully, that will be resolved soon so that productive conversations can begin,” she said. “The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is hopefully now nearing an end, is doing very well. Unfortunately, it probably does undermine our relationship with Russia.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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