While acknowledging that there is a one in four risk of a disastrous meeting, President Trump stated Thursday that he had high hopes of moving forward with a peace agreement for Ukraine during a Friday afternoon summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
In a radio interview, he stated that there is a 25% risk that this meeting will not be successful, in which case he would return to lead the nation.
I won’t be phoning anyone if the meeting goes poorly. Trump went on, “I’m going home.” However, if the meeting goes well, I will call the European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump stated that his primary objectives would be to persuade Putin to accept a ceasefire and to open the door for a three-man summit with Zelenskyy, which he hinted may happen shortly after the Anchorage sit-down and possibly even in Alaska.
Trump’s comments followed Putin’s commendation of his colleague’s vigorous and earnest attempts to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin assembled a group of top Kremlin advisers to celebrate the possibility of a breakthrough on Ukraine and a number of other topics, as both sides attempted to manipulate expectations before the Anchorage sit-down.
According to Putin, the Trump administration is working hard and sincerely to put an end to the fighting, end the crisis, and come to settlements that will benefit all sides of the dispute.
At 11:30 a.m. Anchorage time, or 3:30 p.m. New York time, the summit is set to begin.
Following the discussion, the two presidents will to have lunch with the delegates from the two countries and conduct a joint press conference.
Putin and Trump are meeting for the first time since 2019 and for the first time since Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
Putin has not even alluded to a change in his harsh demands, such as annexing four Ukrainian regions, including territory it hasn’t yet taken on the battlefield, despite highlighting the possibility of progress.
In order to persuade Trump to make more concessions for Ukraine, he attempted to dangle the prospect of progress on nuclear weapons and economic difficulties.
Along with Ukraine, the Kremlin strongman expressed his desire that the enormous and regrettably unrealized potential of deeper economic connections between the United States and Russia will be discussed.
After Washington, the European Union, and others imposed economic penalties, Putin wants to lift Russia’s ban from the Western financial system. Trump has stated that he intends to remove Russia’s economic parity, but he has not yet lifted these sanctions.
Trump did not go into further detail when he stated on Wednesday that there would be dire repercussions if Putin did not consent to ending the war at the conference.
Secondary penalties against India for purchasing Russian oil have been advanced by him, but he has postponed promised actions against other trading partners of Moscow until at least after the Anchorage meeting.
Critics of the administration and Western allies are opposed to the plan to allow Putin to meet with Trump in person because they believe the cunning Kremlin strongman would use his abilities as a master manipulator to deceive Trump.
Despite Trump’s assurances that he will not compromise on important topics like giving up land for peace and his desire to arrange a follow-up summit with Zelenskyy, Ukraine and European allies are concerned about being excluded entirely from the meeting.
In a show of British sympathy for the beleaguered friend, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer embraced Zelenskyy in London on Thursday. According to his aides, they talked about security guarantees for Kyivin in any potential peace agreement.
