Washington – President Donald Trump said Monday that he would try to return the territory to Ukraine while preparing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and establish the bases for an agreement to end the agitation of several years between Ukraine and Russia.
“Russia has occupied a large part of Ukraine. They have occupied a very main territory. We will try to recover part of that territory for Ukraine,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House.
Trump said he will see what Putin “has in mind” to end the war and, if it is a “fair agreement”, he will share it with European and NATO leaders, as well as the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been in contact with Washington before the meeting.
When asked on Monday if Zelenskyy was invited to the meeting on Friday with Putin in Alaska, Trump said the Ukrainian leader “was not part of that” and that despite having participated in numerous sitting in the course of the war, little has come from them. “I would say that I could go, but it has gone to many meetings. You know, it has been there for three and a half years, nothing happened,” Trump added.
The first call of the president of the Putin meeting, which he referred to as “really a feeling” would be Zelensky “out of respect.” He pointed out that I could tell Zelenskyy “‘Good luck, keep fighting’, or I can say: ‘We can make a deal.'”
The comments occurred during a winding press conference to discuss efforts to combat crime in Washington, DC, with a plan to federalize the city’s police force.
During his comments, the president pointed out how even “a great decision” with Putin in the past, “the missiles would be taken to kyiv or somewhere else, and you would have 60 people accounted for on a road dying”, a wink to the challenge of reaching an agreement.
A monitoring meeting could include Zelenskyy and Putin, and maybe Trump himself, the president added. He said “I would be there if they need it.”
But Trump said a Zelenskyy and Putin meeting was the only way to close the conflict.
“Now, I will say this, ultimately, I will put them both in a room, I will be there or I will not be there, and I think it will be resolved,” added the president.
He said he would like to see the fire and reach the “best treatment that could be done for both parties.”
But “there will be some exchanges, there will be some changes on Earth,” Trump said, returning to the idea of “land swaps”, which said Friday “to improve both.” However, Zelenskyy has been unwavering in his position that Ukraine should not yield any territory to Russia; European allies have agreed that giving up the land would encourage greater Russian aggression.
“The answer to the territorial question of Ukraine is already in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said Saturday. “No one will do it and nobody can deviate from Him. The Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupant.”
Trump announced last week that he will meet with Putin on Friday in Alaska while trying to reach a high fire in Ukraine. Initially, the White House had held a meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy as a condition for a meeting between Trump and the Russian president that will take place, but Trump then said it was not a previous condition.
The White House emphasized during the weekend that the priority is one by one with Putin, even when it weighs the possibility of a future meeting with Zelenskyy.
“Next Friday will be important, because it will try to try Putin, how serious it is to end this terrible war,” said NATO general, Mark Rutte, during the weekend in ABC.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in Moscow last week before a deadline of August 8 that the president had established for the Russian leader to accept a stop the fire or face new sanctions.
Putin proposed the contours of an agreement to end the war that would allow Russia to celebrate the Ukrainian sweeping, but has not accepted the fire.
Zelenskyy has urged greater international pressure on Russia, warning against concessions to Moscow.
“Another week has ended without any attempt to accept the world’s numerous demands and stop the murders,” said the Ukrainian leader in X.
“Russia is dragging the war and, therefore, deserves a stronger global pressure. Russia refuses to stop the murders and, therefore, should not receive any reward or benefit. And this is not just a moral position: it is rational.
