US President Donald Trump on Monday decided to cut short his attendance at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, where he was scheduled to meet with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday afternoon, Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent reported from the US delegation’s plane, just before its earlier-than-planned takeoff from Alberta.
Trump’s abrupt decision to return to Washington DC came just hours after the US president said in a social media post that people in Iran’s capital Tehran “should evacuate immediately.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that “because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State.”
“I have to be back, as soon as I can,” Trump told reporters in response to a question Monday night about his plan change.
“We’re going to have dinner with these wonderful leaders and then I get on a plane, I have to be back early for obvious reasons,” he said, adding that he hopes “they understand,” referring to fellow world leaders.
Trump’s evacuation warning to Iran followed the Israeli defense forces’ formal evacuation order to residents of Tehran urging them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure.” A senior US official told reporters that Trump had directed national security staff to convene in the White House Situation Room.
Kyiv Post has learned from diplomatic sources that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also returning to Washington with Trump.
While in Canada, Rubio spoke separately by phone with his UK, French and EU counterparts about the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict, as Trump spent his days telling G7 leaders that Iran “should have signed ‘the deal’”.
Trump also used the first day of the Summit criticizing allies for “throwing Russia out” of the club, hinting at no more US sanctions on Moscow, and debunking early reports that US-Russian direct talks had been cancelled.
Russia used to be a part of the exclusive club of major economies, but was kicked out following its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory.
“I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in,” Trump said on Monday, standing alongside Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, who was hosting the G7, at the start of the summit’s first round of talks.
“The US President is utterly mistaken about Russia,” a high-level Western official told Kyiv Post’s correspondent Monday afternoon following Trump’s Russia statements. “This was not something new or surprising,” the diplomat said, reminding that Trump “did exactly the same last time around when Canada was hosting the summit in 2018.
“He might have forgotten about it, but he had already questioned G7 for kicking Russia out during his first presidency,” the official, who had been regularly attending G7 gatherings for the past 15 years, said. “This time it felt rather confronting considering the current state of Russian brutality in Ukraine,” the diplomat added.
Trump has also displayed his disdain for the collective western values supposedly championed by the group of industrialized countries by also suggesting that he “wouldn’t mind” China to be admitted to the group.
During his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump was asked about sanctioning Russia, and appeared to be skeptical about the idea: “Sanctions cost us a lot of money,” he said.
“When I sanction countries, that costs the US a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money,” he went on to add. “You’re talking about billions and billions of dollars, sanctions are not that easy, it’s not just a one-way street,” he said.
When asked about restarting US-Russia direct talks, Trump said “they’re starting already,” without offering further details.
Starmer, in his part, told his fellow leaders, including Trump that they “should take this moment to increase economic pressure and show President Putin it is in his - and Russia’s -interests to demonstrate he is serious about peace.”
The issue was also discussed separately between Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as they met on the summit’s sidelines a day before.
Trump also held separate meetings with several world leaders, including the Japanese PM, German Chancellor, as well as with the EU Commissioner Ursula Von Der Leyen, at her request.
Ukraine still remained as the major topic, as one western diplomat told Kyiv Post, adding however, the tensions in the Middle East dominated the leaders’ multilateral discussions, which were originally expected to also focus on Russia as well as the trade tensions between the US and many of its allies.
“Let’s hope that next week’s NATO Summit in The Hague will offer better timing and opportunity for the leaders to pick up from where they are leaving off in Canada,” a Western diplomat told Kyiv Post.
As Trump left the Canadian Rockies Monday evening, President Zelensky was en route to Alberta to meet with G7 leaders and push for more support in the wake of the collapse of U.S.-led peace talks.