Trump asked Putin for advice on whether the US should arm Ukraine – Western media

During his first year as president, Donald Trump sought Vladimir Putin’s advice on whether the US should provide Ukraine with weapons, The New York Times reported.
Trump reportedly told the Russian president that his administration was considering giving weapons to Ukraine during the first face-to-face meeting between the two in Hamburg in 2017.

“What do you think?” Trump asked, to which Putin said it would be “a mistake,” adding that whatever the US would give the Ukrainians, they would ask for more, according to the newspaper.

Trump had been primed for the meeting by his advisors, and armed with “hawkish talking points,” but he “never pushed back,” according to cited US officials who attended the summit.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is described as telling anxious White House aides: “We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine.”

As the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign play out, Republican candidate Trump has repeatedly said he would put an end to the Ukraine conflict “in 24 hours” if elected. Critical of the US aid funneled to the Kiev regime, Trump has also mocked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman,” while elaborating that “every time he [Zelensky] comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion.”

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The death toll from Israel's strike on a mosque sheltering displaced persons in the city of Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip has risen to 24, Palestinian news agency Shehab reported.

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US to become a 'single-party socialist state' if Trump doesn’t win the presidential election – Musk

“If [Donald Trump] doesn’t win, the 'Democratic' Party will legalize so many illegals that there will be no swing states! America will become a single-party socialist state, just like what happened to California, where they just made requiring voter ID illegal,” US billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X.

On October 5, Musk spoke at the former president's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces have hit a Ukrainian fuel base near Odessa, along with infrastructure at the Starokonstantinov airfield in Ukraine's Khmelnitsky region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Ukraine's losses in the Russian Battlegroup Tsentr's combat zone amounted to up to 460 militants.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:    

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 530 militants and four ammunition depots in the Russian Battlegroup Yug's combat zone.

▪️ Ukraine's losses exceeded 120 militants due to combat operations by the Russian Battlegroup Vostok.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 50 militants in the Liptsy and Volchansk directions.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 400 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Zapad's combat zone.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 60 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Dnepr's combat zone.

▪️ Russian air defense forces shot down 3 HIMARS rockets and 68 drones.

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📹 Watch Russian Battlegroup Sever Marines destroy Ukrainian equipment and infantry in the Kursk region border area

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