United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal on his war on Ukraine and that the threat of sanctions against Russia likely played a role in Moscow\u2019s decision to seek a meeting. Trump is scheduled to meet with Putin in Alaska tomorrow. The US president said he is unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved, but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement. \u201cI believe now, he\u2019s convinced that he\u2019s going to make a deal. He\u2019s going to make a deal. I think he\u2019s going to, and we\u2019re going to find out,\u201d Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio\u2019s \u2018The Brian Kilmeade Show\u2019. Trump also mentioned during the Fox interview that he has three locations in mind for a follow-up meeting with Putin and Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky, though he noted that a second meeting is not guaranteed. He said staying in Alaska for a three-way summit would be the easiest scenario. \u201cDepending on what happens with my meeting, I\u2019m going to be calling up President Zelensky, and let\u2019s get him over to wherever we\u2019re going to meet,\u201d Trump said. He said a second meeting, featuring Trump, Putin and Zelensky, would likely dig deeper into boundary issues. Zelensky has been adamant about not ceding territory that Russian forces occupy. \u201cThe second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that\u2019s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don\u2019t want to use the word \u2018divvy things up\u2019, but you know, to a certain extent, it\u2019s not a bad term, okay?\u201d he said. \u201cBut there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc, etc. The second meeting is going to be very, very, very important. This meeting sets up like a chess game. This [first] meeting sets up a second meeting, but there is a 25 per cent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,\u201d he said. He said it would be up to Putin and Zelensky to strike an agreement. \u201cI\u2019m not going to negotiate their deal. I\u2019m going to let them negotiate their deal,\u201d he said. Earlier today, Putin spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for a meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, that could shape the endgame to the largest war in Europe since World War Two. In televised comments, Putin said the US was \u201cmaking, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict\u201d. This was happening, Putin said, \u201cin order to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole \u2014 if, by the next stages, we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons.\u201d His comments signalled that Russia will raise nuclear arms control as part of a wide-ranging discussion on security when he sits down with Trump. A Kremlin aide said Putin and Trump would also discuss the \u201chuge untapped potential\u201d for Russia-US economic ties. A senior Eastern European official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Putin would try to distract Trump from Ukraine at the talks by offering him possible progress on nuclear arms control or something business-related. \u201cWe hope Trump won\u2019t be fooled by the Russians; he understands all [these] dangerous things,\u201d the official said, adding that Russia\u2019s only goal was to avoid any new sanctions and have existing sanctions lifted. Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine, and Zelensky and the Europeans worry that a deal could cement those gains, rewarding Putin for 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land and emboldening him to expand further into Europe. An EU diplomat said it would be \u201cscary to see how it all unfolds in the coming hours. Trump had very good calls yesterday with Europe, but that was yesterday\u201d. Trump had shown willingness to join the security guarantees for Ukraine at a last-ditch virtual meeting with European leaders and Zelensky on Wednesday, European leaders said, though he made no public mention of them afterwards. Friday\u2019s summit, the first Russia-US summit since June 2021, comes at one of the toughest moments for Ukraine in a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Speaking after Wednesday\u2019s meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had said the transatlantic Nato alliance should not be part of any security guarantees designed to protect Ukraine from future attacks in a post-war settlement. However, Trump also said the US and all willing allies should be part of the security guarantees, Macron added. Expanding on that, a European official told Reuters that Trump said on the call he was willing to provide some security guarantees for Europe, without spelling out what they would be. It \u201cfelt like a big step forward,\u201d said the official, who did not want to be named. It was not immediately clear what such guarantees could mean in practice. On Wednesday, Trump threatened \u201csevere consequences\u201d if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine and has warned of economic sanctions if his meeting on Friday proves fruitless. Russia is likely to resist Ukraine and Europe\u2019s demands and has previously said its stance had not changed since it was first detailed by Putin in June 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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