“There’ve been cases when the Nobel committee awarded the prize to people who’ve done nothing for peace,” Putin said, without naming names. “That’s damaged the prize’s prestige.”
While he demurred when asked whether he felt Trump deserved the prize, the Russian president — who is currently waging a bloody, years-long war in Ukraine and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes — said Trump “is really doing a lot to solve crises that have lasted years, in some cases decades.”
Trump “sincerely is aiming for peace” in Ukraine, Putin said, adding “the most striking example” of his peacemaking credentials “is the situation in the Middle East.”
The American president announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of a deal to end the war in Gaza, and Israel declared Friday that a ceasefire had taken effect in the besieged enclave.
It is one of numerous conflicts Trump has claimed to have brokered an end to in his second term in office — though The Associated Press has fact-checked much of this assertion as false.
“If Donald succeeds in accomplishing everything he’s aiming for, everything he’s talked about and trying to do, it will be a historic moment,” the Russian president gushed.
