US President Donald Trump has said that he would like to see a second meeting: between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, possibly also in Alaska.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on 14 August, Trump expressed optimism that peace could be achieved at this meeting and said it would be more important than his summit with Putin tomorrow.
“We have a meeting with President Putin tomorrow. I think it will be a good meeting. But the more important meeting will be the second meeting that we are planning… we will have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, me and maybe some European leaders. Probably not. We’ll see,” Trump said.
According to him, the purpose of the Alaska summit, scheduled for 15 August, is to prepare this second possible meeting, which the US president admits could also be held in Alaska “very soon”.
The US leader said that during his meeting with Putin tomorrow, he will see in the first minutes “whether this meeting [with Putin] will be good or not”.
“If not, the meeting will be over very quickly. If it is, we will have peace in the near future,” Trump said.
Earlier today, the US president suggested in an interview with Fox News Radio that there is a 25 per cent chance that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska will not be successful.
At the same time, he 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.
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 a willingness to impose additional sanctions against Russia if the meeting does not end well.
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 outcome 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, Zelensky said that Ukraine was not going to “give its land to anyone” and that the AFU itself would not leave Donbass.
Kiev insists on firm security guarantees in case of any agreements with Russia.