Trump tries to turn the page on the Ukraine War with the historic summit of Putin in Alaska
US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart in Alaska on Friday for their first face -to -face meeting in six years while the American chief tries to end the violent war in Ukraine.
Trump promised on the campaign track to settle the Russian -Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of his return to his duties – a joke which, later, was made “jokingly” because it became obvious that there was no easy way to stop hostilities.
This meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is Trump’s attempt to take the good of this commitment to stop fighting once and for all, although foreign policy experts doubt that everything that is significant will be announced after a single meeting.
CBC News will cover the meeting live from 1:30 p.m. he. You can follow here.
Trump also minimizes expectations. On Thursday, he said that there will be at least one more meeting between him, Putin and perhaps the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – before there is a resolution, if there is one.
Zelenskyy wants an unconditional ceasefire.
From Friday meeting Trump said that he “knows that we are going to get an” immediate drop in weapons at the end.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday. It comes one day before US President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine.
However, there is always the possibility of a breakthrough given the approach of the American president to diplomacy. Trump threatened what he calls “serious consequences” if Russia does not accept to end the fighting.
“I think he will conclude an agreement,” Trump said about Putin in an interview with Fox News Radio. He added that if the meeting was going well, he would call Zelenskyy and the European leaders thereafter to chop the conditions.
Later Thursday, Trump said it was “a big meeting” and “we are going to save a lot of lives” if things were going well. “All I want to do is set the table for the next meeting,” he said.
Putin himself said that the United States “made, in my opinion, fairly energetic and sincere efforts to stop hostilities, to stop the crisis and reach agreements that interest all the parties involved in this conflict”.
This happened, Putin said: “In order to create long -term conditions for peace between our countries, in Europe, and in the world as a whole – if, by the following stages, we reach agreements in the field of strategic offensive weapons control.”
His comments reported that Russia will increase nuclear weapons control as part of a vast discussion on security when he sits with the American president.
What is clear is that Trump gets tired of the conflict of several years that cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
The large -scale invasion of Russia was launched in February 2022. Russia controls approximately 20% of the Ukrainian territory, on the basis of the last Western estimates, and it advances in the east of the country but very slowly.
“It was Biden’s war – it was not my war – I want to see if we can stop the murder,” Trump told journalists on Thursday.
Trump was sometimes hostile to Ukraine while he was putting for a rapid resolution in war, but despite part of his difficult speech, he largely maintained American military support and anti-Russian sanctions.
However, Trump’s desire to put an end to things quickly is a concern for Ukraine and its European allies, said Michael Carpenter, former senior director of Europe to the National Security Council under former American president Joe Biden.
Carpenter is expecting Putin to appear with a list of “maximalist requirements” – such as forcing Ukraine to give up certain oblasters currently under Russian control, urging American support to limit the capacities of the Ukrainian army and to the commitment not to extend the military alliance of NATO beyond its current borders.
All would be deeply unpleasant options for Zelenskyy.
“Europeans are absolutely afraid that Trump will sell from Ukraine, that he will accept Putin’s conditions,” said Carpenter in an interview.
Trump himself said that meetings with Putin could include discussions on land exchanges. The second meeting will be “where they will conclude an agreement,” he said about the Russian chief and Zelenskyy.
“And I don’t want to use the word Divvy things, but you know to some extent, it’s not a bad term, okay?” He said.
At this stage, territorial exchanges are not a non-starter for the Ukrainians.
Carpenter said that Trump’s decision to hold a meeting with Putin on American soil – without a clear plan for peace – gives the Russian President an unprecedented recognition.
“It is unlikely that the summit will in fact produce a substantial result other than this legitimization of Putin in the eyes of many Americans,” he said.
“Putin is an accused war criminal who was isolated by a large part of the Western world and yet he is the big winner of this summit in Alaska because he obtains a platform on the world scene.”
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