The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said Sunday that he could meet “very soon” with Vladimir Putin, adding that he believes that his Russian counterpart really wants to stop fighting in Ukraine.
“There is no established time, but it could be very soon,” Trump told journalists, hours after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, tried to cross the expectations of the next high level conversations in Riad at the end of the war.
With Rubio ready to lead a high -level American delegation in discussions with Russian officials in the capital of Saudi Arabia in the next few days, there was an avalanche of diplomacy when the brutal war of Ukraine approaches its third anniversary.
Trump, addressing journalists after a flight on Air Force One, said his team has been talking “long and hard” with Russian officials, including his envoy from the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who said the president met with Putin Approximately three hours recently.
“I think he wants to stop fighting,” Trump said about Putin.
When asked if he believes that Putin wants to seize all Ukraine, Trump said: “That was my question for him.
“If you are going to continue … that would have caused me a big problem,” Trump added. “I think he wants to finish it, and they want to finish it quickly. Both, “he said, and added” Zelensky also wants to finish it. “
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said Sunday that he believes that Russia is preparing to “free war” against a weakened NATO in case Trump dilutes US support for the Alliance.
Trump seemed to rule out Zelensky’s comments, telling journalists that “not even a little” worried about the messages of the Ukrainian leader.
The Republican had repeatedly insisted that the Ukraine conflict would end in a single day if he returned to the White House, but Rubio emphasized that “it would not be easy to” resolve such long, bloody and complex conflict.
“A process towards peace is not a single meeting,” said the main diplomat of the United States in an interview with CBS Apart from the Munich Security Conference.
‘Nothing’ finished
Rubio will lead a high -level American team to Riyadh, but it is not clear if there will be any Ukrainian participation. Rubio said he wasn’t even sure who was sending Moscow.
“Nothing has been over yet,” he said, adding that the goal was to look for an opening for a broader conversation that “would include Ukraine and imply the end of the war.”
Witkoff and US National Security Advisor are expected to be. Michael Waltz attend the conversations.
Trump and Putin made a long phone call on Wednesday in which they agreed to start the negotiations of Alto El Fuego immediately.
The call to blind NATO allies, as well as kyiv, with Zelensky insisting that there should be no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. “
“At this time there is no process,” said Rubio, who spoke on Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “A phone call does not make peace.”
In an interview with NBC Transmitted on Sunday, Zelensky had said that Putin was a liar in series and that he could not be reliable as a negotiating partner.
“I don’t think in geopolitics, anyone should trust anyone,” said Rubio. “The next weeks and days will determine whether (Putin) is serious or not.”
