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Trump claims Russia, Ukraine want peace amid oil price

drop

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Putin proposes ceasefire for WWII victory anniversary

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Trump doubts Russia's involvement in Nord Stream attack

MOSCOW, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump

said Moscow and Kyiv want to settle the war in Ukraine and that

Russian President Vladimir Putin was more inclined towards peace

after the recent fall in the price of oil.

"I think Russia with the price of oil right now, oil has

gone down, we are in a good position to settle, they want to

settle. Ukraine wants to settle," Trump told reporters in the

Oval Office on Monday.

The price of oil - which drives the Russian economy - has

fallen around $15 a barrel since the start of the year. OPEC+

will accelerate oil output hikes, sources told Reuters.

"We've come a long way, and, it could be something will

happen, but hopefully it will," Trump said.

Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in

February 2022, triggering Europe's biggest ground conflict since

World War Two and the largest confrontation between Moscow and

the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed or

injured and Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the

"bloodbath" that his administration casts as a proxy war between

the United States and Russia.

Trump noted that Putin had proposed a three-day ceasefire to

mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and

its allies over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

"As you know, President Putin just announced a three-day

ceasefire - which doesn't sound like much but its a lot if you

knew where we started from," Trump said. "This is a war that

should never happened".

Trump said that the number of those killed in the war was

far higher than reported by most media organisations. Neither

side in the war publishes up to date casualty figures.

The Kremlin, asked on Monday about a possible meeting

between Trump and Putin in Saudi Arabia, said that a meeting was

necessary but that Putin had no trips to the Middle East planned

for mid-May. Trump has said he plans to visit Saudi Arabia as

early as May.

Trump was asked by a reporter about whether or not he would

order an investigation into the attack on the Nord Stream gas

pipelines in 2022.

A sharp pressure drop on the pipelines under the Baltic Sea

was registered on Sept. 26, 2022, and seismologists detected

explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about who sabotaged

the multibillion-dollar project that carried Russian gas to

Germany.

"They said Russia blew it up - yeah," Trump said in comments

which indicated he doubted that Moscow as behind the attack. "I

think a lot of people know who blew it up."

The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street

Journal have reported that Ukraine - which has repeatedly denied

involvement - was behind the attack. Ukraine has repeatedly

denied involvement.

Russia has accused Western powers including the United

States and Britain of being involved in the attack, but has

published no evidence to support its theory.