 "US President Donald Trump and with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Reuters File")
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Russia would face “very severe consequences” if Moscow didn’t make a genuine effort to move towards peace during his talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
“Yes, they will,” The Guardian quoted Trump as saying during a briefing when asked if Russia would face consequences for not moving towards a peace agreement on Ukraine.
Asked what exactly would the retaliation entail, he said, “There will be, I don’t have to say, there will be very severe consequences.”
Describing the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders as “very good,” Trump said he proposed the idea of a second summit — involving Zelenskyy — to take place after his Friday meeting with Putin, provided meaningful progress is made toward ending the war.
“We had a very good call. He was on the call. President Zelensky was on the call. I would rate it at 10, you know, very, very friendly,” The Guardian quoted Trump as saying.
Reflecting on his past role in Nato, Trump said, “I know the leaders, because I was at Nato, as you know, I took it from 2% to 5% — 2% that wasn’t paid, 5% that is paid — which is trillions of dollars in defence capability,” referring to member states’ defence spending commitments.
He confirmed that his intention all along was to speak with Putin first before reaching out to allies and Kyiv directly.
“It was always going to be I was going to meet with President Putin, and then after that, I’m going to call the leaders and President Zelenskyy – I’m going to call President Zelensky and then I’ll call, probably, in that order, the leaders,” he added.
Impact Shorts
View AllTrump said he believes there is “a very good chance” a follow-up meeting could take place soon after the first summit, if conditions allow.
“There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first, because the first is I’m going to find out where we are and what we’re doing,” he said.
Elaborating further, he said that if the first meeting goes well, a follow-up could happen quickly.
“I would like to do it almost immediately, And we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there, and that would be a meeting where maybe it could be absolutely work [it out] but … certain great things can be gained in the first [meeting], it’s going to be a very important meeting, but it’s setting the table for the second meeting…
There may be no second meeting, because if I feel that it’s not appropriate to have it, because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second meeting,” he said.
Meanwhile, US and European officials are reportedly already looking into potential locations for the meeting, with cities in Europe and the Middle East understood to be under consideration.
Trump also acknowledged that he could not guarantee convincing Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine and conceded that a second follow-up meeting was not guaranteed.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home, or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the street. So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation,” he was quoted as saying.
Earlier, European leaders from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK, the EU, and NATO praised the coordination between Europe and the US during the high-level call, highlighting a united front ahead of Friday’s summit between Trump and Putin.
Finnish president Alexander Stubb, known to be closely involved in talks with Trump, said “the next few days and weeks can be decisive” when it comes to Ukraine’s future.
Zelenskyy urged partners to put even more pressure on Russia, as he argued that Putin was “bluffing” by claiming that sanctions were not affecting the Russian economy.
He said that the leaders shared “a common understanding – as long as Russia takes no steps toward peace, we must continue to exert pressure on it and strengthen support for Ukraine,” as he thanked Germany in particular for hosting the talks and signing off on a new $500m package of aid for Ukraine.
With inputs from agencies