Washington – President Donald Trump reports new doubts as to whether the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian president Vladimir Putin will come together as early as an impetus to a summit between the countries at war seems to fade.
“I don’t know they will meet-maybe they’ll do it, maybe they won’t,” Trump said at the White House on Monday at a meeting at the Oval office with the South Korean leader Lee Jae-Myung. “It will take them.
Trump congratulated Putin for having traveled in the United States for talks, a decision which, according to him, was reluctant to make, but he recognized that efforts to negotiate peace seem to have slowed down.
This marks a change in tone just over a week after Trump organized Putin in Alaska for a whirlwind summit aimed at taking the three-year stage in the Russian-Ukrraine war. Trump had initially suggested that consecutive meetings between the key parties could occur in a few days or weeks.
But he admitted on Monday that the organization of the meetings turned out to be more difficult than he had planned and described the fight as “personal” for the two leaders and rooted in a deep animosity.
Highlighting the dynamics, two Russian cruise missiles last week hit an American electronic factory in Ukraine, a sign that Moscow remains attached to the fight even though Washington calls for the end of blood effusion.
Despite this, Trump struck an optimistic note, saying that he believes that “we are going to make this war understand”, and he also warned that “there could be very great consequences” if Putin and Zelenskyy do not meet soon.
“We will see what is happening during the week or the next two,” he said, extending the deadlines and adding that he would be ready to “walk very strongly” if progress is stalling.
On security guarantees, Trump said earlier that the United States would support European efforts to guarantee Ukraine, but stressed that Europe would undertake the most “important” commitments. “They are there,” he said. “But we are going to save him, because I want to stop seeing people be killed.”
The Trump summit with Putin on August 15 ended suddenly with a planned lunch drawn from the calendar and no cease-fire contract, but Trump reported progress, the “productive” calling. Zelenskyy and European leaders rushed to the White House for a high -level meeting after the summit with Putin. At the time, the White House praised the emergency of the moment, noting that “each of them went on a plane 48 hours later” to join the talks.
During this meeting, Trump came out to call Putin and said later on Truth Social that he had started “the arrangements for a meeting” between Zelenskyy and Putin, after which they would have a trilateral meeting involving Trump himself. Kremlin officials have minimized the idea, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, questioned the future of the push of peace in an interview on Friday with “Meet the Press” of NBC News. There was no such meeting on the calendar, said Lavrov, adding that the main problems, including territorial disputes and security guarantees for Ukraine, remain unresolved.
At the end of the week, Trump’s frustration seemed to be transformed. “I’m not happy with this war. Nothing. Not happy,” he said on Friday, warning that “the next two weeks” could be essential.
When asked what would happen at the end of these two weeks, Trump said he would weigh “massive sanctions or massive or both prices. Or we do nothing and say that it is your fight ”.
