©  UPI

PRESIDENT TRUMP HAD POINTED WORDS Friday for both Russia and Ukraine, as the U.S. prepares to send an envoy to the Middle East to discuss the first steps of a peace deal to bring an end to the three-year war.

The president is weighing additional sanctions and tariffs on Russia, with the aim of pressuring Moscow to the negotiating table.

But Trump once again had sharper words for Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I think we’re doing very well with Russia. But right now, they’re bombing the hell out of Ukraine,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards. They don’t have the cards.”

Trump in recent days paused military aid and ended intelligence sharing with Ukraine, as he seeks to pressure Zelensky to make concessions and sign a minerals deal that would give the U.S. an economic stake in the country.

Trump has said that the minerals deal would act as a deterrent to future Russian aggression.

On Friday, Trump indicated that Ukraine’s future security is secondary to ending the war.

“Before I even think about that, I want to settle the war,” he said, adding a security guarantee “will be the easy part.”

Zelensky wants Ukrainian security guaranteed by the U.S. as part of any deal.

Some Republicans are not happy with Trump’s moves against Ukraine and are pressuring him to resume military and intelligence aid.

“I’m hoping and praying that it’s short-lived,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “I think it will be.”

U.S. and Ukrainian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a path forward.

There is still bad blood between the Trump administration and the Ukrainian government, with Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, saying Ukraine was to blame for the U.S. ending its intelligence sharing.

“Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,” Kellogg said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump this week said he’s considering revoking protected status for Ukrainians in the U.S. who fled the war.

Trump says he wrote a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, calling on the country to negotiate a new nuclear deal with the United States.

“If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing,” Trump said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” which will air in full Sunday.

Trump spoke cryptically about his plans for Iran in the Oval Office on Friday.

“We are down to the final moments,” Trump said. “We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. Something is gonna happen very soon. I would rather have a peace deal than the other option but the other option will solve the problem.”