President Trump said that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and that swapping territories will be discussed in potential peace talks between the Kremlin and Ukraine.
“I think we’re getting very close and we’re going to be announcing later on— we’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia,” Trump said. “And we’ll announce the location, I think the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons. But we’ll be announcing that a little bit later, I just don’t want to do it now because of the importance of what we just did.”
Trump's remarks reflected on the setting in which he was taking questions.
He was asked about meeting with Putin while hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who were signing a peace accord after years of conflict.
Trump elaborated on what a peace deal with Russia and Ukraine could look like after Putin reportedly presented the administration with a ceasefire proposal that involved Ukraine making territorial concessions.
“You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years. A lot of Russians have died, a lot of Ukrainians. So we’re looking at that, but we’re actually to get some back and some swapping, it’s complicated. It’s actually— nothing easy. It’s very complicated. But, we’re going to get some back. And we’re going to get some switched,” Trump said. “They’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both but we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow or whatever.”
The president added that he will announce the location “in a little while” but insisted that he didn’t want to say at the time with the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement.
Asked if he could soon be hosting a similar event alongside Putin and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, Trump said he thinks “we have a shot at it,” adding “we’re going to get it solved.”
“European leaders want to see peace, President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace,” Trump said.
He then punted to Zelensky to prepare to sign a ceasefire agreement.
“Now, President Zelensky has to get all of his, everything he needs, because he’s going to have to get ready to sign something and I think he’s working hard to get that done,” the president said.
Trump has been weighing whether to meet with Putin, as well as Zelensky, in the coming weeks and raised the idea of meeting with the two leaders during a call with European allies on Wednesday, a source confirmed to The Hill. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt this week said Russia had expressed an interest in meeting with Trump.
Source: The Hill - News
