Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that his meeting with Vladimir Putin will take place sooner than expected, stating that he hopes to have “constructive conversations,” although he emphasized that he will not be the one to close a peace agreement.
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Last week, Trump announced that the meeting will take place in Alaska, after the deadline he had set for Moscow to accept a ceasefire in Ukraine expired. The exact time and location of the summit scheduled for this Friday have not yet been revealed.
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What did Trump say about his summit with Putin?
“Actually, it’s a bit of a meeting to feel out the situation,” Trump pointed out during a conference at the White House on federal intervention in the Washington police force and the deployment of the National Guard to address crime and homelessness issues in the capital.
Referring to Putin, he stated: “I think that, if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t even be talking to anyone at this moment”. However, according to ABC News, he downplayed expectations that the meeting will end the war in Ukraine.
Trump explained that, after the meeting, he plans to communicate with President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to inform them about what was discussed. “I am not going to make a deal. It is not up to me to make a deal,” he insisted. He also confirmed that Zelensky will not participate in the Friday meeting, although he will be the first to receive details about its content.
The president added that, if a “fair agreement” arises, he will present it to Ukraine and its European allies. “And I may tell them, ‘Good luck, keep fighting,’ or I may tell them, ‘We can reach an agreement’,” he commented.
When asked how he will know if reaching an understanding is possible, he answered: “Because that’s what I do. I make agreements.” He did not specify what he would consider a fair agreement, although he mentioned the possibility of a “territory exchange” again.
Trump indicated that his goal is to prepare for a future meeting between Zelensky and Putin, or one in which he himself participates alongside both. “I’ll be there if they need me, but I want there to be a meeting between both leaders,” he said.
Ukraine calls for more pressure on Russia.
In contrast, Zelensky called on Monday for intensifying international pressure on Moscow and stated that Putin shows no signs of seeking peace. “Putin only wants to present a meeting with the United States as a personal victory and then continue to act as before, applying the same pressure on Ukraine as before,” he wrote in X. He added that recent movements of Russian troops indicate plans for new offensives rather than a post-war scenario.
The Friday meeting will mark Putin’s first visit to the United States since 2015. Trump appreciated that Putin is traveling to US territory instead of the meeting taking place in a third country, such as the United Arab Emirates as proposed by the Russian president.
Trump also expressed frustration towards Putin and Zelensky, reiterating that the war would not have started if he had been in the presidency from the beginning of the conflict. Although during his campaign he had claimed he would end the war in 24 hours, he later acknowledged that it was an exaggeration. He described the situation as “complex” and with “a lot of accumulated resentment”, but maintained that he will pressure Putin to stop the violence. “I am going to talk to Vladimir Putin and I will say to him: ‘You have to end this war. You have to finish it’”, he declared.