WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expects to have a “constructive conversation” with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during their upcoming meeting and expressed frustration with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for ruling out territorial concessions.
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in the US state of Alaska on Friday for talks to end the Ukraine war.
“I’m going to speak to Vladimir Putin and I’m going to be telling him ‘you’ve got to end this war,'” Trump said at a White House press conference, quoted by AFP. He added that he would “like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly.”
Trump said he would call Zelensky and other European leaders right after the meeting with Putin, set for Friday in the far northern US state of Alaska.
“The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky, Putin and me. I’ll be there if they need,” he said.
Trump said he was a “little bothered” by Zelensky saying he needed constitutional approval for any territorial concessions.
“I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody. But he needs approval to do a land swap?” he said. “Because there’ll be some land swapping going on.”
Meanwhile, the German government said on Monday that European leaders plan to hold talks with Zelensky and Trump on Wednesday.
European leaders’ push
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited the French, British and other European leaders and the EU and NATO chiefs to the virtual talks, his spokesman said, amid fears across Europe that any deal made without Ukraine could force unacceptable compromises.
Merz’s office said Monday the video conference in various rounds of talks would discuss “further options to exert pressure on Russia” and “preparation of possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security”.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer were also involved in planning Wednesday’s meeting of the “coalition of the willing”.
As EU foreign ministers began an emergency meeting on Ukraine on Monday, Merz announced the initiative to keep Europe at the table, AFP reported.
Merz’s office said he would on Wednesday talk to leaders from “Finland, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, the heads of the European Commission and Council, the secretary general of NATO, as well as the US president and his deputy”.
According to Germany’s Bild daily, a first conference call will include the European leaders, Zelensky, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
This would be followed by a joint call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the newspaper said.
Over the weekend, several European leaders pushed Trump to exert more pressure on Russia in a joint statement and warned that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine”.
‘Testing Putin’
Ahead of Monday’s EU talks, Zelensky warned against capitulating to Putin’s demands.
“Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position — it is a rational one,” Zelensky wrote in a statement published on social media.
Asked on CNN on Sunday if Zelensky could be present at the Alaska summit, US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker responded that “yes, I certainly think it’s possible.”
“Certainly, there can’t be a deal that everybody that’s involved in it doesn’t agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it’s a high priority to get this war to end.”
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also said any US-Russia deal to end the war had to include Ukraine and the bloc.
“The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously,” she said. “Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security.”
As a prerequisite to a peace settlement, the Kremlin has demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of several regions controlled by Moscow, commit to being a neutral state, shun US and EU military support and be excluded from joining NATO.
