US President Donald hoped for a positive outcome as he headed for Alaska, where he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in a “high-stakes” meeting focused on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “There’s a good respect level on both sides, and I think something’s gonna come of it.”
“I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good. I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war (Russia-Ukraine war) settled,” he added.
The meeting will be held at 1900 GMT (12:30 am IST) at Anchorage, a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska’s largest city.
Trump-Putin Meeting: Top Points
- Further speaking to reporters, Trump said that territorial swaps between Ukraine and Russia will be discussed in the upcoming meeting, but stressed that Ukraine will have the final say in any such decisions.
- He gave the statement shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Anchorage wearing a white T-shirt with “CCCP,” the Soviet Union’s abbreviation, a move widely seen as a symbolic message about Moscow’s hardline negotiating stance.
- Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has not been invited to the meeting, said there is no sign that Moscow is preparing for peace. His remark came as Russia fired missiles on traffic outside the city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, killing one.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov hinted towards the possibility of a three-way summit if the Alaska talks bore fruit, according to Interfax news agency.
- Trump also signalled that if the meeting with his Russian counterpart doesn’t go well, he “would walk”. “I think it’s going to work out very well, and if it doesn’t, I’m going to head back home real fast,” he said, reported CNN.
- “If it doesn’t, you walk?” asked Fox News anchor Bret Baier to which Trump replied: “I would walk, yeah.”
