US President Donald Trump has suggested that there is a 25 per cent chance that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska will not be successful. Trump said this on 14 August in an interview with Fox News Radio on the eve of the summit to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, on 15 August.
At the same time, the US president expressed hope that Putin would eventually agree to a deal to end the war against Ukraine. “The threat of tougher sanctions against Moscow may have played a role in the Russian authorities requesting the upcoming meeting,” Trump said.
He also believes the summit could be preparation for a second meeting – involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump noted that he will call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the second meeting and that he has three locations in mind for the upcoming meeting with Putin and Zelensky.
The US president added that if he considers the summit with Putin to be productive, he will call Zelensky and European leaders later, otherwise he will not call anyone and will not hold a joint press conference with the Russian leader announced earlier by the White House and the Kremlin, but will speak on his own to say that “the war continues.”
Trump also expressed his willingness to impose additional sanctions against Russia if the meeting does not end well.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters earlier that Donald Trump would hold talks with Vladimir Putin on 15 August in the hope of securing a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, but a comprehensive resolution to the conflict would take more time.
“In order to achieve peace, I think we all recognise this, security guarantees need to be discussed, territorial disputes and claims need to be discussed”, Marco Rubio stressed.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that it would be a mistake to try to get ahead of the game and predict the results of the meeting. There are no plans to sign any documents following the US-Russia summit in Alaska, Putin’s spokesman added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not taking part in the meeting of the US and Russian presidents in Alaska. Earlier, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was not going to “give its land to anyone” and that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would not leave Donbas on their own.